Download Program Notes

ABOUT
pacific symphony youth ensembles
PACIFIC SYMPHONY SANTIAGO STRINGS
P
acific Symphony Santiago Strings (PSSS) is currently in its 24th season. Sponsored by The
Orange County Chapter of the Suzuki Music Association of California/Los Angeles Branch,
PSSS was founded by Lonnie Bosserman and Margie Chan in 1991 and was known as the
Santiago Strings Youth Orchestra before joining the Pacific Symphony family in 2007. Led by
Irene Kroesen, a respected veteran teacher of the Irvine Unified School District, PSSS benefits
from the artistic guidance of Pacific Symphony Music Director Carl St.Clair.
Representing more than 30 schools in and beyond Orange County, PSSS provides an experience
that nurtures the confidence, poise and musical sensitivity of young musicians through the study
and performance of outstanding string orchestra literature. PSSS serves instrumentalists in
grades 6 through 9 and is one of three Youth Ensembles programs offered by Pacific Symphony.
Each season, students enjoy an interaction with Maestro St.Clair, as well as interactions with
guest artists and professional musicians of Pacific Symphony. Students also engage in an annual
weekend retreat and are offered free and discounted tickets to Pacific Symphony performances.
Each season, PSSS presents a two-concert series, participates in the Orange County Suzuki
Festival and appears annually at Disneyland. Performances take place at the Renée and Henry
Segerstrom Concert Hall at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts as well as other high-quality
community venues in Orange County. The opening performance features a joint program with
the Prelude Chamber Strings.
PACIFIC SYMPHONY YOUTH WIND ENSEMBLE
E
stablished in 2007, Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble (PSYWE) started under the
direction of well-known music educator and recipient of the “Band Educator of the Year”
award from the California Music Educators Association, Michael J. Corrigan, with support
from Larry Woody and the Woody Youth Fund.
PSYWE offers performance opportunities to instrumentalists in grades 8 through 12, provides
members with a high-quality and innovative artistic experience, and strives to encourage
musical and personal growth through the art of performance. Each season, students enjoy
an interaction with Maestro St.Clair, as well as regular interactions with guest artists and
professional musicians of Pacific Symphony. Each season PSYWE presents a three-concert
series. Performances take place at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at Segerstrom
Center for the Arts as well as other high-quality community venues in Orange County. Members
are selected through annual auditions which take place in June.
PACIFIC SYMPHONY YOUTH ORCHESTRA
F
ounded in 1993, Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra (PSYO) has emerged as the premier
training orchestra of Orange County and is quickly being recognized as one of the most
outstanding youth orchestras in the country.
PSYO offers performance opportunities to instrumentalists in grades 9 through 12 and provides
members with a high-quality and innovative artistic experience and strives to encourage musical
and personal growth through the art of performance. Each season students enjoy an interaction
with Maestro St.Clair, as well as regular interactions with guest artists and professional
musicians of Pacific Symphony. Students also engage in an annual weekend retreat and are
offered free and discounted tickets to Pacific Symphony performances throughout the season.
PACIFIC SYMPHONY
YOUTH ENSEMBLES
Led by Pacific Symphony Assistant Conductor Alejandro Gutiérrez, PSYO presents a threeconcert series, generously sponsored by the Cheng Family Foundation. Members also participate
in a side-by-side performance with Pacific Symphony, where students perform in concert
with their professional counterparts as part of Pacific Symphony’s Family Musical Mornings.
Performances take place at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at Segerstrom
Center for the Arts as well as other high-quality community venues in Orange County. The final
performance of each season features the winners of the annual concerto competition, for which
auditions are exclusive to current members of the Youth Orchestra. Rehearsals take place every
Sunday afternoon in the music department at UC Irvine, starting in September and ending in
May.
For more information about the Pacific Symphony Youth Ensembles program and auditions,
please contact [email protected].
MAY 10
pacific symphony youth orchestra
SE G E RST RO M CEN TER FOR THE A RTS
RENÉE AND HENRY SEGERSTROM CONCERT HALL
presents
2014-15 CHENG FAMILY FOUNDATION
YOUTH ORCHESTRA CONCERT SERIES
The concert begins at 7 p.m.
ALEJANDRO GUTIÉRREZ • CONDUCTOR
JAKE PLATT • DOUBLE BASS | HANAE YOSHIDA • TROMBONE
DANIELLE LIU • VIOLIN | EMMA LEE • CELLO
Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889)
Tarantella for Double Bass
Jake Platt
Trombone Concertino No. 4, Op. 4 in E-flat Major
Ferdinand David (1810-1873)
I. Allegro maestoso
Hanae Yoshida
Violin Concerto No. 3, Op. 61 in B Minor
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
III. Molto moderato e maestoso – Allegro
non troppo
Danielle Liu
Cello Concerto, Op. 104 in B Minor
Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904)
III. Finale: Allegro moderato
Emma Lee
INTERMISSION
Symphony No. 5, Op. 47 in D Minor
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Moderato
Allegretto
Largo
Allegro non troppo
This evening’s performance is generously sponsored by
Peter and Helen Bing and Kathryn and David Moore.
14 • Pacific Symphony
NOTES
by joshua grayson
Trombone Concertino No. 4, Op. 4 in E-flat Major
f e r d i n a n d d av i d ( 1 8 1 0 -1 87 3 )
(1821-1889)
GIOVANNI BOTTESINI
A
close friend and confidante of Felix Mendelssohn, violinist and
composer Ferdinand David (1810-1873) has proven to be an
unjustly neglected composer of 19th-century Germany. His
friendship with his better remembered friend dates to 1836, when he
found himself concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
under Mendelssohn’s baton. A keen conductor himself, David was
said to have led the Gewandhaus through conducting that combined
technical proficiency, energy and musical sophistication with the unique
ability to hear and respond to musical stimuli extraordinarily quickly.
Tarantella
A
conductor, composer and virtuoso double bass player,
Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889) was one of the great musical
talents of the 19th century. While in his own day he was
known primarily as a performer, he composed music in nearly all
major genres of the day, including 12 operas, a requiem mass and an
oratorio. He studied a variety of forms of music in his youth, having
learned the violin and timpani and sung in choir. A precocious youth,
he applied to the Milan Conservatory in 1835 and was accepted, but
was dismayed to find very few scholarships available. Apparently,
one for double bass was available, so he learned how to play the
instrument in a few weeks and was able to impress the judges
enough to secure the scholarship.
Known as the Paganini of the double bass, Bottesini greatly expanded
the technique of playing the instrument. He also developed a unique
tuning. Using only three strings, he tuned each of them higher than
normal. Usually preferring them one full-step sharp, he sometimes
varied them from a half step to a perfect fourth up. After spending
several years in Cuba, he toured the world performing, conducting
and composing before focusing more on composition beginning
around 1860.
Bottesini’s Tarantella is based on a southern Italian folk dance named
after the town of Taranto (the spider was coincidentally named
after the same town, although the dance itself was not named after
the spider as is popularly believed). A fast courtship dance with
castanets and tambourines, the tarantella is in a quick 6/8 meter.
As with many concert imitations of this type of dance, Bottesini’s
Tarantella features sprightly rhythms, leaping melodies and a frenzied
feel.
Composed in 1837, David’s Trombone Concertino, Op. 4, was supposed
to have been Mendelssohn’s Trombone Concerto. Karl Traugott
Queisser, the renowned trombonist with the Gewandhaus Orchestra,
had approached Mendelssohn with a request to write a trombone
concerto. After initially agreeing to his request, Mendelssohn found
himself running short on time and suggested that Queisser ask his
friend David instead. David happily obliged, and composed a piece that
turned out to be one of the earliest and most important concertos for
the instrument. At the premiere in 1837, Mendelssohn conducted the
orchestra and Queisser played the solo part.
David’s concertino is one of the first pieces to use the trombone
as a solo instrument, as well as being one of the earliest to include
music specifically shaped and crafted for the technical and sonorous
possibilities of the instrument. In earlier music, trombones had been
used to amplify the volume of the orchestra, or for religious, funeral,
macabre or apocalyptic associations (think Berlioz’s Symphonie
Fantastique). Demonstrating the influence of Mendelssohn, the work
features a wide variety of expressive moods: playful, lyrical, virtuosic,
dramatic and operatic.
Violin Concerto No. 3, Op. 61 in B Minor
c a m i l l e s a i n t - s a ë n s ( 1 8 3 5 -1 92 1 )
O
ne of the leading French composers of the 19th century,
Camille Saint-Saëns lived an active musical life. Saint-Saëns
developed a true love of traveling, visiting many parts of
Europe, North Africa and South America, and exotic geographic
locales play a role in several of his musical compositions. A pianist
and organist as well as composer, Saint-Saëns began his musical life
as a prodigy, displaying his supreme talents in the conservatory and
establishing his reputation as a composer by his mid 20s. In addition
to symphonies, concertos and his now famous Carnival of the Animals
(of which the composer was so embarrassed that he forbade its
public performance during his lifetime), Saint-Saëns wrote 13 operas.
Saint-Saëns wrote his Violin Concerto No. 3 in 1880. Dedicated to
his friend, esteemed Spanish violin virtuoso and composer Pablo
de Sarasate, the concerto marks the high point of Saint-Saëns’
musical career. Frequently performing and conducting in England
and throughout the rest of Europe, Saint-Saëns found himself at
the height of his prestige at home as well. Along with other French
composers, he had formed the Société Nationale de Musique in
1871 to further the interests of French music response to France’s
defeat to Prussia. The work has proved to be one of his most popular,
demonstrating his tremendous gift for melodic invention, rhythmic
spontaneity and thematic transformation. As with his Organ
Symphony, the piece progresses from minor to major. It combines
passages of beauty and charm with bravura virtuoso solo passages.
Pacific Symphony • 15
NOTES
Composed in 1894-95, the piece was written for cellist Hanuš Wihan
(1855-1920). Traditional in its outlook, it begins with an orchestral
introduction, a feature that had largely disappeared from concertos
by the 1840s and was incredibly old-fashioned by the 1890s.
T
(1841-1904)
ˇ ÁK
ANTONIN DVOR
Symphony No. 5, Op. 47 in D Minor
Cello Concerto, Op. 104 in B Minor
F
illed with longing and haunting beauty, the instantly
recognizable cello concerto of Antonín Dvořák represents a
thoroughly traditional musical conception. During the later
part of the 19th century, a new generation of radical composers
took inspiration from the operas of Richard Wagner. As part of this
trend, the 1890s saw composers such as Gustav Mahler and Richard
Strauss write music pushing the boundaries of comprehensibility
and sensibility. At the same time, another group of older composers
was writing more traditional music. Led by the great German
composer Johannes Brahms, these composers in many ways created
music that hearkened back to the ideals of Beethoven’s time. Many
other composers found their inspiration in folk music. Opposed to
Wagnerism, Dvořák’s music combined the traditionalist and folk
music camps.
A native of what is known today as the Czech Republic, Dvořák
had been residing in New York City since 1892. He had been
invited by Jeanette Thurber to lead the National Conservatory, the
preeminent American school of music during the closing decade
of the 19th century. Thurber had long maintained an interest in folk
and nationalist music, and chose Dvořák to head the conservatory
because of his music’s folk-like qualities. In many of his pieces
composed during this time—particularly the “New World” Symphony
and the “American” String Quartet—Dvořák incorporated aspects
of American folk music, including Native American melodies and
African-American spirituals.
By 1895, however, the composer began experiencing homesickness
for his native Bohemia. This sense of nostalgia is particularly
pronounced in the cello concerto, which is entirely devoid of
“Americanisms.” Infused with aching melancholy, the work speaks
of a longing to return to the familiar comforts of home, family and
friends. At the same time, the composer’s sister-in-law became
gravely ill. In deference to her, Dvořák chose to include a quotation
of his melancholy 1882 song “Lasst mich allein” (“Leave me alone”)
Op. 82, No. 1 in the second movement of the concerto. When she
died, Dvořák added this melody to the third movement as well.
16 • Pacific Symphony
he role of art had been heavily discussed during the early days
of the Russian Revolution. During the first years of the Soviet
Union in the 1920s under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, it
was felt that revolutionary politics should naturally be allied with
revolutionary music and art; modernist innovations in art were seen
as challenging cultural norms in the same way that Bolsheviks sought
to overthrow the political establishment. However, in a totalitarian
country like the USSR would become, every aspect of public and
private life would eventually be subsumed by ideology, including art
and recreation. In a nation in which all aspects of society were heavily
controlled by the government, art came to play a central role in
official state ideology. Thus, official tolerance for the musical avantgarde was to be short lived. By the 1930s, it was decided that the
primary purpose of art should be to uplift people’s spirits. According
to Marxism-Leninism, society functioned best when all individuals
used their talents and abilities to work toward the common benefit.
In return, all individuals received sustenance from society (the dictate
was often abbreviated as “from each according to his abilities, to
each according to his needs”). Since artists and composers received
compensation from society at large, the government dictated that
their works should be understandable to as many people as possible.
These dictates were strictly enforced by the government. After
all, a happy worker is a productive worker; since the government
controlled nearly every aspect of the economy, it was in the
government’s interest to keep its citizen workers as happy and
productive as possible. Composers were expected to write uplifting
music in a simple style, reflective of either local folk traditions or the
great Russian musical tradition. Difficult, modernist music was not
tolerated. Stalinist artistic policy was finalized in 1934 and codified in
1946 by Andrei Zhdanov, Soviet minister of art. Zhdanov argued that
since “the people” were supporting composers, “the people” should
be able to benefit from the music composers produced. Thus, he
advocated (actually, forced) a style of music that could appeal to as
wide an audience of peasants and workers as possible, rather than to
a small audience of elite intellectuals.
The musical style being advocated, eventually known as “Socialist
realism,” was to be accomplished in very specific prescribed ways:
by incorporating elements of folk music and by using a simple,
consonant harmonic language. In addition, music was encouraged
to have some kind of overt political message, and that message was
required to be positive and optimistic. Therefore, choral works were
to be preferred over instrumental genres, and programmatic works
(orchestral music that tells a story) were favored over absolute
music (pieces that are only about the music itself and do not have
an overriding storyline). Finally, Soviet composers were strongly
encouraged to emulate the “good” aspects of the great Russian
tradition, particularly certain stereotyped characteristics of the music
of Glinka and Tchaikovsky. Zhdanov’s policies were strictly enforced:
composers who wrote music according to their own desires instead
of what the government told them to write saw their music banned,
became ridiculed and were fired from positions. Those who ignored
the government dictates were threatened and humiliated, and
legitimately feared arrest.
justified criticism.” (Although these words came in a letter signed by
him, opinions differ in musicological circles as to whether or not they
were actually his. It is easy to imagine his signature being forged by
a middling bureaucrat in order to enhance the government’s image
of power and control over its artists. But then again, it is equally
possible that Shostakovich was terrified enough to write an apology
for his earlier music.) At any rate, according to the official review this
symphony was a real improvement over the Fourth, although hardly
perfect. The second movement was considered a failure because it
was too dark and depressing; however, the third movement was said
to be much better. According to this view, Shostakovich’s Fifth is a
kind of Soviet Beethoven’s Fifth, mirroring Beethoven’s depiction of
Hope’s glorious victory over Despair. Unlike in Beethoven’s version,
Shostakovich’s symphony was said to express the glorious triumph of
Communism over the forces of bourgeois capitalist oppression.
(1906-1975)
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
NOTES
In 1936, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), one of the so-called “Big
Four” Soviet symphony composers, along with Sergei Prokofiev, Aram
Khachaturian and Nikolai Myaskovsky, found himself at the height of
national prestige and national controversy. A concert pianist as well
as a composer, he had graduated from St. Petersburg Conservatory
several years before, and his first symphony had received wide
critical and popular acclaim. By the mid 1930s, he had written two
more symphonies as well as two operas. At the ripe old age of 29,
Shostakovich had come to be seen as the leading composer of the
Soviet Union. All this was to change suddenly.
On Jan. 28, 1936, an article entitled “Chaos instead of Music” appeared
in the Orwellian-named newspaper Pravda (meaning “truth” in
Russian). The editorial reviled Shostakovich for writing dissonant,
“formalist” music in his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, which was
“inaccessible to the masses” (“formalist” would long remain a favorite
Soviet term for any music they did not like). Although this opera is not
particularly dissonant and even was somewhat representative of thencurrent official ideology, Shostakovich was heavily criticized anyway.
The most likely reason was because of his huge degree of success
and fame. Rather than choosing Lady Macbeth due to any serious flaw
(even “flaws” according to the new government artistic policy), the
editorial chose this work because by singling out the most famous and
influential composer in the Soviet Union, the government could prove
that nobody was safe from official censure. Shostakovich was in huge
trouble and had good reason to fear arrest. Accounts tell that he kept
his bags constantly packed so that he could leave at a moment’s notice
the second the knock on the door came in the night. Although these
stories are apocryphal, they are exaggerated only slightly, if at all.
Only two years after the 1934 change in official Soviet policy
towards the arts, Shostakovich finished writing his Symphony No.
4. Just as his music was being slammed by Soviet authorities for its
“formalism,” he canceled the premiere of this highly dark, dissonant,
modernist work, a work he later claimed as his greatest symphony.
Aware of recent developments, Shostakovich had keen foresight.
In 1937, Shostakovich wrote and published his Fifth Symphony. In an
article for Pravda, he called this piece “a Soviet artist’s response to
However, there is an alternative interpretation. Many contemporary
critics and listeners passionately argue that the finale is not at all
meant to express genuine optimism. Quite the contrary, they believe
it to be the ultimate expression of ironic wit, enforced celebration and
painfully fake exuberance. To these critics, it is the expression of the
worst type of pain of all—the pain of compulsory cheerfulness in the
face of terror. It is the ironic recognition of a sham.
Which one of these interpretations did Shostakovich intend? Was
he a Stalinist collaborator or a closet rebel? Or was he simply
frightened? These are some of the most hotly contested issues in
musicology today, and it is impossible to say for sure one way or the
other; it is up to each of us to decide for ourselves.
Joshua Grayson is a doctoral candidate in historical musicology at the USC Thornton
School of Music.
Congratulations,
graduating class of 2015!
Want to stay connected to
your alumni community?
Like our Facebook page!
/PSYEnsembles
Pacific Symphony • 17
ALEJANDRO
meet the psyo music director
A
lejandro Gutiérrez is the assistant conductor for Pacific Symphony and music director
of Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra (PSYO). He was associate conductor of the
National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica from 1998 to 2012, constantly touring the
nation’s seven provinces with this orchestra, as well as conducting concerts in the subscription
series. He is the designer and conductor of several successful educational and family programs:
“Discovering Beethoven,” “The Family Instruments of the Orchestra,” “From the Caves to the
Orchestra,” “The Concerto,” and co-designer and conductor of “Halloween Masquerade” and
“Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Haunted Violin” for Pacific Symphony’s Family Musical
Mornings concerts. Gutiérrez has been passionate about introducing opera and ballet to children
with productions featuring Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Donizetti’s Elixir of Love, Rossini’s Cinderella,
Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and Prokofiev’s Cinderella, among others.
Gutiérrez has been guest conductor for the San Diego Symphony, Houston Symphony,
Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra, Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Honduras Philharmonic,
Tatui Summer Festival Wind Orchestra and MIMU Festival Chamber Ensemble in Brazil, the
UT Symphony Orchestra and Costa Rica’s National Symphonic Choir among other prestigious
ensembles in Latin America.
Gutiérrez has served as assistant conductor of the Austin Symphony Orchestra in Texas, music
director of the University of Texas University Orchestra, music director and conductor for the
2011 UT Opera Center production of Mozart’s Così fan Tutte and prepared the national and
international casts of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly for the Costa Rican National Lyric Opera in
2007. He has also served as music director of The University of Costa Rica Symphony Orchestra,
The National Institute of Music Wind Orchestra and some musical theater productions.
As music director and conductor of the University of Costa Rica Symphony Orchestra and the
National Institute of Music Wind Orchestra, Gutiérrez led a program for new music in which he
premiered winning compositions of the National Award of Composition given by the Minister of
Culture.
As an orchestra and chamber music artist, Gutiérrez has performed in Japan, Germany, Czech
Republic, Hungary, Spain, Austria, throughout Latin America and the Caribbean and is recipient
of the Costa Rican National Prize of Music 1997, and received the Special Prize of the City of
Passau, Germany in 1999. Gutiérrez is also a passionate pedagogue, clinician and speaker, and
holds a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the University of Texas at Austin.
ALEJANDRO GUTIÉRREZ
PSYO MUSIC DIRECTOR
18 • Pacific Symphony
ARTISTS
meet the concerto competition winners
J
ake Platt is a junior at Dana Hills High School, where he has been the principal bassist of
the advanced orchestra for three years. He is the principal bassist for Pacific Symphony
Youth Orchestra and has been a member of Junior Chamber Music. Last year, he premiered
a chamber piece with the Salastina Music Society commissioned by JCM. Platt has been a
member of various local and regional honor groups. He picked up the double bass in sixth
grade in his middle school orchestra. Little did he know he would soon become enthralled with
the instrument and that it would be a large part of his life. He has studied under Doug Basye
of Pacific Symphony, Dennis Trembly of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Tim Pitts of Rice
University. He has been the recipient of many awards and scholarships, including a summer
festival scholarship from The Richard Rodgers chapter of The Guilds of Segerstrom Center for
the Arts. Platt plans to major in music performance in college and hopes to inspire others with
his music.
JAKE PLATT
DOUBLE BASS
HANAE YOSHIDA
TROMBONE
DANIELLE LIU
VIOLIN
H
anae Yoshida, a 15-year-old sophomore at Northwood High School, is honored to be one
of the four soloists performing this evening. Throughout the two years of her high school
career, Yoshida has been a part of the Southern California School Band and Orchestra
Association organization as well as the All-State Orchestra. Over the summer, she attended
the Idyllwild Summer Full Orchestra Program, conducted by professor Larry Livingston, and is
looking forward to flying to Boston to improve her trombone performance at Tanglewood this
summer. Besides these accomplishments, Yoshida also has been an active musician at her
school. Being a part of almost half of the visual and performing arts programs, including Wind
Symphony, Chamber Winds, Jazz Ensemble I, Jazz Combo I, Marching Band and Chamber
Singers, she is thankful for these amazing programs the school provides. Additionally, she would
like to thank Mr. Phil Keen, her music directors, her friends and her family for supporting and
guiding her to become who she is now, and she hopes to continue her passion and love of music
and trombone. Lastly, Yoshida hopes you enjoy her performance of the David concerto with her
amazing fellow musicians in PSYO! Thank you!
D
anielle Liu is a 9th-grade student at Crean Lutheran High School in Irvine. She started
playing the violin when she was 4 years old and has received several awards through the
American Strings Teachers Association and Southwestern Youth Music Festival, and has
served as concertmaster with Pacific Symphony Santiago Strings. She is currently a member of
Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra. In addition, Liu plays the piano and has participated annually
in the International Piano Guild Auditions and has won a number of competitions at the annual
music festivals held at Chapman University. She has completed the MTAC’s Certificate of Merit
Advanced Level in both violin and piano. She was also an active member of the band program in
her middle school and competed with the band as a tuba player at the Heritage Festival of Gold
this past April. Liu graduated valedictorian and was the recipient of the Humanitarian Award at
her middle school, Heritage Oak Private Education. She also volunteers monthly in her church
by playing violin for the kids’ services. She loves listening to classical music and playing with her
little sister. Liu would like to be a doctor and a musician when she grows up.
E
mma Lee, age 15, has always enjoyed music, even as a young child. She has always found
that music is her unique way of communicating her passions in life. She started playing the
piano at the age of 5. At the same age, Emma was very involved with orphan care outreach
through her family’s adoption ministry. In 4th grade, she wanted to join the school orchestra and
decided to pick up the cello. She is blessed to receive cello instruction under Sarah Koo Freeman.
Lee currently attends Crean Lutheran High School, where she serves as the principal cellist. She
loves being part of the PSYE family, and PSYO has solidified Lee’s decision to pursue music as
a career. In Lee’s perfect world, she would spend all her time playing passionate music, eating
delicious foods, photographing her pretty puppies and surfing the cool waves of Maui.
EMMA LEE
CELLO
Pacific Symphony • 19
MEET
the youth orchestra
PACIFIC SYMPHONY YOUTH ORCHESTRA
ALEJANDRO GUTIÉRREZ • MUSIC DIRECTOR
2014-15 Season
Sections listed alphabetically under principal
VIOLIN I
BJ Kim, concertmaster
Phil Chen, assistant
concertmaster
Heidi Chen
Joanne Do
Elaine Huang
Jonathan Huang
Lauren Huang
David Huh
Brandon Kim
Emily Kim
Heesoo Kim
Jessica Lee
Ethan Liao
Danielle Liu
Justin Liu
Leonardo Matsuoka
Jennifer Park
Tyler Rho
Caitlyn Zhang
VIOLIN II
Sydney Grace Mariano,
principal
Katherine Park, assistant
principal
Annie Chang
MaryAnn Choi
Evette Chung
Grace Gee
Luchi Jiang
Emily Jin
Andrew Lee
Colleen Louie
Jean Park
Christina Tang
Katherine Wee
Shelby Wong
Alicia Xie
Daniel Yang
Jennifer Yang
Gordon Yin
Julia Yuan
VIOLA
Christine Lin, principal
Eunji (Sarah) Shim, assistant
principal
Hanlin Chen
20 • Pacific Symphony
Christina Chung
Kenneth Han
Isaac Ki
Claire Lee
Karen Li
Sandra Na
Noah Pacis
Luke Quintanilla
Yerim Seo
BoSung (Michael) Suh
Kevin Tsao
CELLO
Hannah Kim, principal
Emma Lee, assistant principal
Julianne Chen
Erica Huang
Annie Hyung
Justin Koga
Samantha Lee
Sabrina Oh
Daniel Paik
Wesley Park
Phillip Seo
Yunjoo Shin
Christopher Ye
Kelly Zhou
BASS
Jake Platt, principal
Yena Chung
Edmund Fung
Nhi Nguyen
Seemal Tahir
Tomoka Takeuchi
CLARINET
Matthew Kimn, principal
Jonathan Myong
Jane Park
BASSOON
Kahayla Rapolla, co-principal
Stephen Shu, co-principal
Molly Smit †
Gabriela Victoria
FRENCH HORN
Ellie Antici, principal
Ava Conway
Janis Jin
Noah Tingen
Jacob Williams
TRUMPET
Tatiana Giesler, principal
Kenny Abbott
Aaron Alcouloumre
Andrew Liu
TROMBONE
Hanae Yoshida, principal
Dominic Diaz
Eliana Leish
Christopher Liu
BASS TROMBONE
Phillip Lee, principal
TUBA
Will Nazareno, principal
FLUTE
Gloria Liu*, principal
Alison Huh
Jennifer Lee
Bridget Pei*
HARP
Sydney Gang, principal
OBOE
Amy Dong, principal
Sophia Lou
Daniel Moore
Juliana Victoria
CELESTE
Megumi Suzuki
PIANO
Valerie Narumi, principal
PERCUSSION
Nathaniel Johnson, principal
Geneva Daniels
Anthony Gilleland
Hiram Rivera
STAFF
Justin Sun, Youth Orchestra
Manager
* piccolo
† contrabassoon
PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS
Aliso Niguel High School
Arnold O Beckman High School
Capistrano Valley High School
Cerritos High School
Crean Lutheran High School
Dana Hills High School
Diamond Bar High School
El Toro High School
Irvine High School
Laguna Beach High School
Long Beach Polytechnic High
School
Martin Luther King High School
Mater Dei High School
Mission Viejo High School
Northwood High School
Orange County School of the
Arts
Orange Lutheran High School
Oxford Academy
Palos Verdes HS
Rancho San Joaquin Middle
School
Sage Hill School
St. Margaret’s Episcopal School
Sunland High School
Tesoro High School
Troy High School
University High School
Valencia High School
Walnut High School
Woodbridge High School
Yorba Linda High School