Season Finale Concerts
We round off our 2015-16 season with two beloved masterpieces that will feature prominently on our summer tour to Austria and Italy: George Gershwin’s An American in Paris, and Three Dances from The Three-Cornered Hat by Manuel de Falla. George Gershwin composed the ever-popular An American in Paris four years after he catapulted to international success and stardom with his Rhapsody in Blue in 1924, and the work has been a perennial favorite ever since. The Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, also like Gershwin attempting to infuse his scores with musical ideas and elements from his native country, composed the hilarious ballet The Three-Cornered Hat in 1919 for the world-famous Ballets Russes, and the highly successful premiere took place that year, with stage scenery and costumes by Pablo Picasso and choreography by Léonide Massine. Our final concert will also feature winners from our Senior Soloist Competition.
Leo Eylar, conductor
Hannah Choi, cello
Samuel Chien, violin
Yulan Chen, flute
Falla: Three Dances from The Three-Cornered Hat
Elgar: Cello Concerto (4th mvt.)
Barber: Violin Concerto (1st mvt.)
Ibert: Flute Concerto (1st mvt.)
Gershwin: An American in Paris
Graduating Senior Concerto Competition Winners
Hannah Choi, 17-year old cellist, began studying cello since the age of seven. She studies cello with Senior Lecturer Stephen Harrison of Stanford University. She has enjoyed being in the California Youth Symphony for seven years, in which she has been a Senior Principal Cellist for the past 3 years.
Samuel Chien has been playing the violin for 10 years and this will be his fifth year in California Youth Symphony Senior Orchestra. He began studying violin at the age of 7 with Shuwei Liu and currently studies with Zhao Wei.
Yulan Chen, 17, began playing the flute at the age of eight with Bonnie Blanchard in Seattle, WA. She currently studies with Maria Tamburrino, and previously studied with Isabelle Chapuis, and Esther Landau in the Pre-College Division at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
