Season 14

1965-1966

Seniors

October 1965 Concert

Concert Program Overview

The concert program for October 1965 CYS Concert was divided into two main parts with an intermission in between. The first segment of the program began with Ludwig van Beethoven's impressive "Overture to 'Egmont,' Opus 84." This was followed by the "Concerto in E Flat for Trumpet" by Franz Joseph Haydn, which included the three movements: Allegro, Andante, and Allegro. The trumpet soloist featured in the Haydn concerto was Ricky Baptist. Following the intermission, the orchestra performed the entirety of Louis Hector Berlioz's monumental "Symphonie Fantastique, Opus 14." This symphonic work consists of five distinct movements: 1. Dreams, Passions, 2. A Ball, 3. Scene in the Meadows, 4. March to the Scaffold, and 5. Dream of a Witches' Sabbath. The concert was scheduled to be performed on two separate dates: October 17, 1965, at the San Mateo High Auditorium and October 24, 1965, at the Foothill College Gym.

Featured Soloist: Ricky Baptist

Ricky Baptist is a seventeen-year-old musician who was a senior at Arroyo High School in San Lorenzo at the time of this program. He began his musical journey playing the trumpet when he was nine years old, and for the four years leading up to this performance, he studied under his teacher, Mr. Leo De Mers. His experience includes numerous command performance awards received at the Solo Ensemble Festivals. Ricky served as the solo trumpet with the College of Holy Names Orchestra for two years, and he has also played with the San Leandro Symphony Orchestra. Furthermore, he was a member of the San Leandro Municipal Band for four years and has previously appeared as a soloist at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. Demonstrating his broad skill set, Ricky has made appearances on television with a musical show and has taken on composition and arrangement duties, having scored all the music for his school's junior show; he was slated to complete the music score for his upcoming senior show as well. Beyond his classical and academic work, he has played professionally with dance bands for four years, and his long-term ambition is to earn his college degree in music education.

February 1966 Concert

Concert Program Overview

The concert program for February 1966 featured a diverse selection of works ranging from the Baroque era to contemporary compositions, divided by an intermission. The first half began with Johann Sebastian Bach's iconic "Toccata and Fugue in D minor," a staple of the repertoire. This was followed by "Pantomime," a piece composed for and dedicated to the California Youth Symphony by Kazumi Ujihara, and featured Galen Ritchie as the narrator. The first half concluded with "Kaleidoscope for Percussion" by Richard T. Peterson, who also conducted the performance of his own work. After the intermission, the program continued with the three-movement "Concerto No. 3 (Youth)" by the Russian composer Dmitri Kabalevsky, consisting of Allegro molto, Andante con moto, and Presto. The piano soloist for this concerto was Leonne Lewis. The concert concluded with Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's dramatic "Romeo and Juliet (Overture-Fantasy)." The performances were scheduled for February 6, 1966, at the San Mateo High Auditorium and February 13, 1966, at the Foothill College Gym.

Featured Guests, Soloist and Conductor

Kazumi Ujihara (Composer-Honored Guest)

Kazumi Ujihara was born in Tokyo in 1923. His father was a guitarist and his mother was a pianist, though Ujihara himself is not formally music-educated. He studied composition, orchestration, and conducting under Mr. Nicola Lucci and Mr. Hidemaro Konoye. In 1957, Mr. Ujihara became conductor of the Ota Junior Orchestra. By 1960, he served as a leader of the Yotsuba Junior School, where he worked hard to promote music education for young people. He has composed and edited piano music for children, choir music, a ballet, and tunes for puppet shows. His work, "Lyric Poem," was performed at Interlochen, Michigan, in 1964 as part of the Youth Orchestra Festival. Mr. Ujihara visited the California Youth Symphony in August 1964 and was hosted by Dr. and Mrs. Noe in Los Altos. It was during this time that he composed "Pantomime," a suite for young people, which the C.Y.S. was honored to perform. He is currently working at the Yamaha Music School in America, based in Los Angeles.

Richard T. Peterson (Guest Conductor-Composer)

Richard Peterson is an active musician in the Bay Area, working as an organist and choir director at Christ Episcopal Church in Los Altos. He also serves as the timpanist for the Master Sinfonia and the Schola Cantorum orchestra of Foothill College, and for the Peninsula Symphony. Peterson teaches percussion and piano privately. He established the first full percussion section of the California Youth Symphony and was a charter member, assisting with the Notre Dame College Instrumental Program led by Mr. Henry Use. He conducted his own composition, "Kaleidoscope for Percussion," in this performance. Admittingly, few of the admirers of the C.Y.S. percussion section realize how many hours Peterson has given to help bring about the fine effects achieved in each concert.

Leonne Lewis (Guest Soloist)

Leonne Lewis, seventeen years old, is a daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Earl A. Lewis of Hillsborough. She attends Crystal Springs School for Girls in Hillsborough. Leonne first appeared in concert at the age of eight as a major prizewinner in the Junior Bach Festival and has performed in succeeding Junior Bach Festivals. At the age of ten, she was a soloist in three youth concerts with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra at Berkeley, San Mateo, and the San Francisco Opera House. She was also chosen as the Mercedes Spires Memorial Orchestra Scholarship winner of the Pacific Musical Society and frequently performs in recitals in San Francisco and the Peninsula. She is a member of the Crystal Springs Trio under Mr. Philip tennis and was scheduled to solo four times this year with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in their youth concerts. Currently, Leonne is a piano student of Mr. Adolph Baller. She formerly studied with Mr. Thomas LaRatta, who brought her to Mr. Sten's attention.

Aaron Sten (Conductor)

Aaron Sten is a veteran music educator on the United States West Coast, mixing well with school-age children and possessing an inexhaustible background of good orchestral music. He approaches his work with enthusiasm, patience, and a great dose of humor. Sten believes that music is the medium through which he builds a common interest with young people, emphasizing that participation in the symphony gives them a special sense of responsibility and accomplishment. He notes that under his direction, young people may become better members of society, enriched by an experience culturally lofty yet as refreshingly natural as sports.

May 1966 Concert

Concert Program Overview

The May 1966 concert presented a classical program featuring four major works spanning the Baroque to the Romantic eras, separated by an intermission. The concert opened with the "Oboe Concerto No. 3 in G Minor" by George Frideric Handel, which includes the movements Grave, Allegro, Sarabande, and Finale. Jeff Noe was the featured oboe soloist for this piece, which the program notes explain was not originally regarded as an instrument for extensive concerto writing but was suited to delicate chamber work, as was the case with Handel's use of the oboe. Next was the "Symphony No. 7 in A Major (Op 92)" by Ludwig van Beethoven, which was noted as "absolute" music, meaning it was not intended to convey any particular picture. The program specifically highlights the vigorous, justly famous, two-themed first movement and the joyous, wild, and abandoned finale.

Following the intermission, the program continued with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major," dedicated to the memory of Professor Thomas Ryan. The three movements are Allegro, Adagio, and Presto, with Aniko Gombos performing as the piano soloist. The program notes offer a detailed analysis of the first movement, which contains four themes ranging from serene to vigorous, and the second, which is described as the longest and loveliest melody ever devised by Mozart. The concert concluded with "The Dances of the Polovetzian Maidens" from "Prince Igor" by Alexander Borodin. The piece is derived from Borodin's opera, where Prince Igor, held captive in a Polovetzian war camp, honors his captor, Khan Konchak, by arranging a series of war dances. The Tarter tribes' original dances were intended for orchestra and chorus, but the latter is usually omitted in modern presentations.

Featured Soloists 

Jeff Noe (Oboe)

Jeff Noe is a seventeen-year-old oboist and a senior at Awalt High School in Mountain View. He began playing the oboe at the age of ten and studies with his present teacher, Martha Soffer Elspas. He has also broadened his education by studying at two summer workshops with Robert Bloom, a renowned oboist with the Bach Aria Group and a faculty member at the Yale Graduate School of Music. As the Principal Oboist of the California Youth Symphony, Jeff participated in the 1963 concert tour of Japan, where he played both the oboe and English Horn. He was the soloist on the English Horn in the C. Y. S.'s performance of Sibelius's "Swan of Tuonela" tone poem during their second annual concert at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco in March 1965. More recently, he was a guest soloist with the Honolulu Youth Symphony in October and performed the Handel Oboe Concerto. In February of the current year, he also appeared as a soloist with the All-California High School Symphony in Santa Barbara. Jeff is a regular member of his school orchestra and band, and has been a member of both the Peninsula Symphony and the Stanford Summer Youth Orchestra. He has accepted an appointment to the Air Force Academy.

Aniko Gombos (Piano)

Aniko Gombos is a student in the eleventh grade at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, who earned the solo pianist position for the California Youth Symphony's 1965-66 concert season through auditions. She is the sixteen-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Gombos of Palo Alto. Aniko began her piano studies at the age of six in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at the Seebach Studio, and continued in Spokane, Washington, with Mrs. Dorothy Sinnitt. After moving to California in 1961, her teachers included Mr. Peter Zimmermann, a concert pianist and composer from Frankfurt, Germany, and beginning in 1964, Professor Thomas Ryan of San Jose State College's Music Department, until his sudden death earlier this year. Aniko is currently studying with Mr. Adolph Baller. She has won numerous first and second prizes on the KXLY regular TV program for young people in Spokane and participated throughout the years in the "Greater Spokane Music Allied Art Festival." In California, she achieved superior ratings during the auditions of the Junior Festivals of the "National Federation of Music Clubs" in San Francisco and performed in the UNICEF concert and the concerts of the Junior Music Festivals of Santa Clara County in both 1963 and 1964.

The 1966 Goodwill Tour of Mexico

CYS embarked on a highly successful 17-day goodwill concert tour of Mexico from June 30 to July 16, 1966. This was the orchestra's second major foreign tour, following a month-long trip to Japan in July 1963. The tour included a series of eight concerts in major Mexican cities, including Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Oaxaca. 

The touring ensemble consisted of 105 members, mostly young musicians ranging in age from 12 to 18, predominantly hailing from Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

Before departing, the orchestra performed at the 28th Annual Midsummer Music Festival at Sigmund Stern Grove in San Francisco on June 26, 1966. This final domestic performance featured a core of the Mexico tour repertoire, including:

• Toccata & Fugue (Bach-Stokowski)
• Symphony No. 7 (L. van Beethoven)
• Polovetzian Dances (Borodin)
• March to the Gallows (Berlioz)
• Romeo & Juliet Fantasie Overture (Tchaikovsky)

The tour was universally praised by audiences and critics, with one review noting that the CYS was "lauded by LBJ." The audience reception was described as "great." While CYS President Dr. Gibb Madsen's Spanish was limited, he translated critic reviews with phrases like "brilliant violins" and "the orchestra played impeccably."

Key events during the trip included:

• Oaxaca: The orchestra performed at a movie theater repurposed as a concert hall, where they turned out in their "finest." The concert was described as one of the "very high points" of the trip, despite the tropical climate and insects.
• Diplomatic Engagements: The musicians were guests at an "Ambassador delightful" event at Ambassador Freeman's home, where the Ambassador even played a jam-session on trombone. The CYS also gave a chamber orchestra concert and a press reception at the U.S. Embassy.
• Cultural Exchange: The CYS performed a special concert at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City for 100 Mexican secondary school children who had been brought in to meet the young American musicians. The orchestra made an impression by playing a special encore, a Mexican folk tune, which had the audience stamping their feet and cheering "seven curtains."
• Sightseeing: The itinerary included a visit to the ruins of Monte Alban and Mitla, guided by a "gentle, intelligent person" named Victor. They also attended a bullfight after the Ambassador's reception, where six bulls were killed.

The tour was a major success, praised as an enjoyable and memorable experience that successfully advanced cultural understanding and friendship between the two nations.