It MAY be another gorgeous Saturday afternoon in San Francisco, but it's just another work day backstage at Davies Symphony Hall, home of the San Francisco Symphony.
Musicians in T-shirts and shorts mill around, sharing weekend plans and chatting about their forthcoming European tour, including three stops in Ireland this week. The overhead loudspeaker crackles: "Orchestra, second call, on stage please." As the 115 musicians noisily begin to fill the space, they make an expectant cacophony.
Davies Hall is modern but warm, with clear, space-age pods hanging overhead for reflecting the sound. This afternoon, there's a lot of it to reflect. The players, guided by Alasdair Neale, the group's music director for the past dozen years, make a big sound. They approach their rehearsal with great focus and professionalism. They play with precision and sound great.
You'd be easily forgiven if you thought this was the San Francisco Symphony, or any full-time professional orchestra for that matter. But it's not. It's the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. A bunch of teenagers. What are these California teens doing inside on a gorgeous Saturday anyway, when they could be out playing frisbee in Golden Gate Park, or driving around in their convertibles, wind in their hair?
Cellist Gabrielle Athayde explains: "This is my passion. Playing in the Youth Orchestra is my favourite thing almost in my entire life." Violinist Quen Cheng agrees: "Just like somebody else with art or sports, this is my extracurricular hobby and I love to do it."
The association of a youth orchestra with a major symphony orchestra is a rare thing in the US. In most cases, it's a self-evident affair.
Ronald Gallman is the director of education programs for the San Francisco Symphony, including the Youth Orchestra. He says the orchestra "travels, rehearses and performs as close as possible to the way a professional orchestra does. Because of its very close affiliation, the symphony can provide the kinds of artistic and administrative resources the orchestra needs for concerts and touring."
This includes coaching by symphony musicians. During rehearsals, violinist Zoya Leybin was darting up and down from her seat in the hall, conferring with concertmaster Wayne Lee, yelling feedback on the string sound to Neale on the podium.
"They're the greatest youth orchestra in the world," she whispered breathlessly. "They gotta be!"
This is a valedictory time for Alasdair Neale, who resembles actor Ralph Fiennes, physically and vocally. He is stepping down from his post as music director of the orchestra. As it turns out, his final concert will be on Thursday night in Dublin's National Concert Hall. As he reflects on his young players, he seems focused, but a bit wistful. "There's this amazing joy and thrill of discovery and this great intellectual curiosity that they have. They are incredibly open-minded and they're like sponges and they're willing to absorb all these amazing facets of the pieces that they're playing. I find that energy immensely liberating. I think that it keeps me a little younger than I might have been."
The musicians love Neale, too. Cheng singles out "the chance to work with Alasdair" as the single most valuable experience of his tenure with the Youth Orchestra. "He's just incredible."
Neale focuses on the benefits of a tour like this. "The value is enormous on many levels," he says, citing artistic growth, cultural exposure, "and then of course there's the shared experience of living in close quarters with one another in an incredibly hyper, artistically-charged environment, for three weeks."
He says he's "excited to bring the orchestra to Ireland, and I know the kids are excited and thrilled about going there as well." That would certainly include the youngest member of the group, 13-year-old violist Christi Simpson, whose great-grandmother, Sarah Gordon, missed the boat out of Ireland. It was The Titanic. "It's kind of a legend in the family."
Only between one-quarter and one-third of the members of the orchestra will pursue careers in music. Gallman was not alone when he told me that, due to the "intensity of the experience, wherever the players go they will be very knowledgeable and committed audience members and supporters of symphony orchestras".
For example, Cheng plans to attend the University of California, Berkeley, in the autumn, with the hope of studying medicine. But music will still be there for him.
"I would hope to keep it as large a part of my life as I could. I definitely want to keep it as my passion. I'll never stop loving music."
The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra plays in Limerick's University Concert Hall tomorrow; Cork City Hall on Monday; and Dublin's NCH on Thursday. The concert on Thursday will be broadcast live at 8p.m. on Lyric FM
Tom Crann is a national host and producer for Minnesota Public Radio. He's also an occasional contributor to Lyric FM
