Season 34
1985-1986
Seniors
Season Premiere: Professionalism and Musical Satire (November 1985 Concert)
Concert Program Overview
CYS launched its 34th Season in November 1985, under the continued direction of Dr. Lauren Jakey. Performances were held on Sunday, November 10, at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center and on Sunday, November 17, at the De Anza College Flint Auditorium. The orchestra, composed of 104 young musicians from 30 different Bay Area communities, presented a diverse program that spanned from classical literature to contemporary satire. The concert opened with Haydn’s Symphony No. 93 in D Major, followed by the Romantic centerpiece, Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor. After the intermission, the ensemble performed the West Coast premiere of Frank McCarty’s "Takeoff," a satirical work that pokes humor at how a serious orchestra is supposed to sound. The program concluded with the grand, atmospheric movements of Respighi’s "Pines of Rome," which featured the San Jose State Brass Ensemble as guest performers.
Featured Soloist: Peter Miyamoto
The featured soloist for the November 1985 series was 16-year-old pianist Peter Miyamoto. Miyamoto was a highly decorated young artist who had won every piano competition he had entered in the Bay Area over the previous two years. Nationally recognized for his talent, he was recently named a piano finalist in the prestigious Seventeen Magazine-General Motors Concerto Competition. His performance of the Chopin concerto was the highlight of the 34th season opener, showcasing the virtuosic skill that led to his selection as a top competitor on the national stage.
Season Highlight: Virtuosity and Aggressive Rhythms (March 1986 Concert)
Concert Program Overview
CYS presented its second concert of the 34th Season on Sunday, March 16, 1986, at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center, with a repeat performance the following Sunday at the Flint Center in Cupertino. The program was notable for its ambitious scale, featuring Mozart’s Overture to "Don Giovanni" and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The performance of Stravinsky’s masterpiece was described as a "tour de force," with the young musicians navigating its complex, rhythmically aggressive passages and impressionistic sections with a "feeling of urgency" and "spirited, rhythmically adroit reading". Critics noted that the orchestra played with such fire that it was a "miracle they didn't lose their places" amidst the brilliance of the afternoon's featured soloist.
Featured Soloist: Paul Festa
The centerpiece of the March 1986 series was a "searing, stunning, [and] virtuoso" performance of Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 14 by 15-year-old violinist Paul Festa. A resident of San Francisco, Festa was lauded for his total command of bowing, fingering, and musical sanity while tackling one of the most difficult pieces in the violin repertoire—a work written by a 16-year-old prodigy that requires technical feats usually expected of much more mature artists. Festa’s interpretation was characterized by vibrant tone, effortless command, and a controlled burning passion that dominated the afternoon. Following this series, the young violinist prepared to tour Sweden, Norway, and Denmark with the CYS in June 1986 before heading to New York to further his musical studies.
Season Grand Finale (May 1986 Concert)
Concert Program Overvew
CYS concluded its 34th Season with a final senior concert series held on Sunday, May 18, at the De Anza College Flint Auditorium and Sunday, May 25, at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center. Led by Dr. Lauren Jakey, the 110-member ensemble performed a demanding program that included Berlioz’s A Roman Carnival Overture, the Adagio from Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, K.622, Bloch’s "Nigun" from Baal Shem, and Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. The concert series reached its grand climax with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64 and was dedicated to the memory of Sam Ognibene. Following the domestic finale, the orchestra prepared for a landmark two-week tour of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark in June 1986.
Featured Soloists
Charles Chan (Violin)
A 17-year-old resident of Los Altos Hills, Charles Chan served as the first CYS concertmaster to hold the post for two consecutive years. Having played violin since age five and studied at the prestigious Toho School of Music in Tokyo, Chan joined CYS eight years prior and was a member of the California Scholarship Federation. For the May finale, he performed Bloch’s "Nigun," showcasing the technical mastery that allowed him to lead the 110-member orchestra. Despite his deep musical involvement, including television spots on KICU and appearances on radio talk shows, Chan planned to enter the University of California, Berkeley in the fall to study mechanical engineering.
Lisa Davenport (Clarinet)
Clarinetist Lisa Davenport, a resident of Los Altos and a NASA volunteer, performed the second movement of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. Davenport held the distinction of being a CYS member longer than nearly anyone else at the time, having played with the ensemble for almost nine years, including performances at Stern Grove, Paul Masson, and the Hollywood Bowl. A National Merit Scholarship Finalist and member of the State Honor Band, she also received the Palo Alto Elks Lodge Scholarship and the Most Outstanding Musician Award at the Clovis Jazz Festival. Following graduation, she planned to attend Colorado College as a scholarship student to pursue a career in astronomy.
Legacy of Excellence: CYS 1986 Scandinavian Tour
Following the conclusion of its 34th domestic season, CYS embarked on a landmark two-week international tour of Scandinavia in June 1986, visiting Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. This ambitious journey was the orchestra's 11th foreign tour in its 34-year history, reinforcing its status as one of the world's largest and most active musical youth groups. Under the direction of Dr. Lauren Jakey, the 100-member ensemble, composed of talented teenagers from 30 Bay Area communities, presented six concerts across the three nations.
The tour began on June 17 and included performances in prestigious historical and cultural venues:
Sweden: The orchestra performed in Linköping, Palo Alto's sister city, where they played in a 12th-century castle and the historic Linköping Cathedral. They also played in Stockholm and performed at Sweden's largest concert hall in Gothenburg.
Norway: A major highlight was a trip down a fjord to Bergen, where the musicians performed at the birthplace of famed composer Edvard Grieg at Troldhaugen.
Denmark: The tour concluded with a performance at the world-renowned Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen.
The tour program was designed to showcase both classical mastery and technical exuberance. The repertoire featured Berlioz’s "A Roman Carnival" Overture, Howard Hanson’s "Pan and the Priest" (honoring the composer's Swedish heritage), and reached its grand finale with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E minor. Swedish critic Berndt Petersson described the performance in Linköping as "unbelievable but true," praising the orchestra's precision and discipline. He specifically noted that the quality of the CYS performance was so profound that it overshadowed local contributions, highlighting the "sovereignty and brilliance" of Dr. Jakey's conducting.
The 15-year-old violinist Paul Festa was the breakout star of the tour, performing Wieniawski's Violin Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor. This notoriously difficult work requires a soloist to master vast variations of tone, exact glissandos, and complex double-stops. Petersson remarked that Festa "stole the whole concert," describing his technical command as that of a "wonder-child". During a pre-tour "Scandinavian Takeoff" concert at Foothill College, local critics also lauded Festa for his disciplined, controlled performance and his effective "danclike feeling" in the concerto's rondo.
The tour was made possible through significant community effort, including a fund-raising concert on June 15 where raffle tickets were sold for prizes such as a two-week trip to Copenhagen. The event underscored the local pride in the 110 youngsters who participated, many of whom drove as much as two hours each way for Sunday rehearsals to prepare for this professional-level international exposure.
