Meet Your Instructor: Scott Foglesong talks Music Classes, Coding and Cats

We caught up with the multi-talented musician, award-winning teacher, and long-time San Francisco Conservatory of Music faculty member, who leads FRESH LOOK: The Symphony Exposed—a new adult education class, which takes place at Walnut Creek Library for four Saturdays, starting July 14, 2018.

Scott Foglesong leads FRESH LOOK: The Symphony Exposed — a new adult education class, which takes place at Walnut Creek Library for four consecutive Saturdays, July 14 through August 4, 2018.

CSO: Where are you originally from and where do you live now?

SF: I’m originally a Texan, born in Houston and raised both there and in Fort Worth. I spent my formative years in Denver, and then went off to Baltimore for college (Peabody Conservatory). I relocated here to the Bay Area in the 1970s and lived in San Francisco for almost 40 years. Nowadays I’m an emigre to suburbia; my home is in Brentwood, out in eastern Contra Costa county, where I have been since 2015.

CSO: You have a rich background in music that encompasses teaching, performing and writing. Can you give us the edited highlights version of your bio?

SF: I began studying piano at age 4 when I commandeered the piano originally meant for my sister. After continuing to play piano through high school, I entered the Peabody Conservatory as a piano major and then continued my graduate studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where I studied piano with Nathan Schwartz, harpsichord with Laurette Goldberg — who founded the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra — and theory with John Adams, back in the days before he was a famous composer.

I still give the occasional piano recital, but my focus is in teaching: I teach eartraining and music theory at SFCM and music history/appreciation courses at both UC Berkeley and the Fromm Institute at USF. I became involved with the San Francisco Symphony about 15 years ago, first as a contributing writer to the program book and then also as a pre-concert lecturer. Nowadays I’m all over the place — not only those afore-mentioned venues, but I also write for the Las Vegas Philharmonic, San Luis Obispo Symphony, and Berkeley chorus Chora Nova in addition to the SF Symphony and the California Symphony. I hold the Sarlo Award for Excellence in Teaching (SFCM). Next year marks my 41st on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory, where I have chaired the Musicianship and Music Theory department since 1999.

“The thing about the course is to focus on the music, and let the biographical or informative aspects arise from that rather than the other way around.” — Scott Foglesong

CSO: You’ve been writing the program notes for California Symphony concerts since 2013. What’s the most surprising factoid you’ve revealed to audiences in your program notes?

SF: I think possibly the most intriguing is just how close the Rachmaninoff Second Symphony came to not ever being written at all.

CSO: The Symphony Exposed is a completely new adult education initiative. How did you approach developing the course and what are you most looking forward to sharing?

SF: I am blessed with plenty of experience in sharing music with non-musicians, thanks to my work at UC Berkeley, the Fromm Institute, and the SF Symphony. The thing about the course is to focus on the music, and let the biographical or informative aspects arise from that rather than the other way around. So my goal, my hope, is to help people become aware of just what how vast and varied our Western musical tradition is, in particularly as it has manifested in the modern orchestra — which, by the way, is a fairly new phenomenon in the scheme of things.

CSO: You describe yourself as a “pianist, musician, teacher, writer, cat-lover, music history devotee, occasional computer geek and sometime programmer.” Can we get a picture of your cat?

SF: My kitty April went to her reward in 2013 at the amazing age of 25 years old; I haven’t had a kitty cat since then. Here is April in 2010, not looking anywhere near her actual age (22 years old).

FRESH LOOK: The Symphony Exposed is a new adult education class which takes place at Walnut Creek Library for four consecutive Saturdays, July 14 through August 4, 2018.

The initiative is supported by a generous grant from the American Orchestras’ Futures Fund, a program of the League of American Orchestras made possible by funding from the Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation.

SOUND MINDS STORIES: A Parent’s Perspective

Fabiola is mom to Adeline, one of the original Sound Minds students who joined the pilot program in 2012.

Fabiola’s daughter Adeline was one of the original Sound Minds students. Youngest daughter Stefanie-Sofia looks forward to joining the program in second grade next year.

CSO: Your daughter Adeline joined the program back when it started in 2012. What has your experience with Sound Minds been like?

FABIOLA: I think it’s a great program. It helps kids gain more confidence. It also helps them with their reading a lot. One of my daughters had a problem with reading and now she loves reading, so it’s helped her a lot with that.

I feel like it also brings us together as a family. Sometimes on a Friday night we’ll have a mini concert! My husband and I are the audience, and the kids are either singing or playing an instrument so that brings us together as a family.

CSO: How do you think Sound Minds has impacted your daughter?

FABIOLA: It’s helped Adeline a lot because she also has music classes in middle school. She also has them at the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts. [CSO: This is a new partnership championed by the California Symphony, where Sound Minds students can now continue intensive Arts instruction after they leave Downer.] She was extremely shy, and now she’s not.

At the last concert in the middle school, she didn’t even have to look at the notes any more because she knows the music already and I told her “I’m so proud of you, baby!”

Even in the East Bay Center when she’s in a concert, I can see she’s feeling the music and she’s enjoying the concert, and I like it because she was so super shy in front of people and in front of an audience, and now she’s not. It’s helped her a lot.

Fabiola plans for her daughter Stephanie-Sofia to join the program when she gets to second grade. Stephanie-Sofia says she’d like to learn the cello, just like big sister Adeline.

Be a part of the success! Support music education and the Sound Minds program during the California Symphony’s Crescendo Your Impact fall fundraising campaign and when you give by Oct. 31, 2018, your gift is matched dollar-for-dollar and your impact is DOUBLED.

Your donation supports:

A season of exciting concerts featuring amazing professional musicians and stellar guest artists — all right here in Walnut Creek

Sound Minds — providing intensive music training and transforming the lives and futures of local children in one of the most economically disadvantaged parts of the state

Emerging composer talent through the highly-regarded Young American Composer-in-Residence program

www.californiasymphony.org/crescendo or call the California Symphony office at 925 280 2490 for assistance.

This is one article in a series of five about the California Symphony’s El Sistema-inspired music education program, Sound Minds.

View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com

Learn more about the Sound Minds program at www.californiasymphony.org/sound-minds or call the California Symphony Office at 925 280 2490.

SOUND MINDS STORIES: The Teachers Talk

For the teachers, Sound Minds is not just about learning an instrument and raising academic standards; it’s teaching persistence, personal responsibility and life skills—and opening students up to a wider world of opportunities they would never otherwise have dreamed of.

Sound Minds teachers Amy Haltom and David Sego.

Amy Haltom is Program Coordinator for Sound Minds and been with the program since its inception in 2012. David Sego joined Sound Minds in 2016. Both teach violin in the Sound Minds program.

CSO: What would you like people to understand about Sound Minds?

AH: That it is a music education program that’s not just about music. It’s about building community, teaching life skills, teaching responsibility through the act of making music together. It’s designed to bring a community closer together and instill a sense of responsibility in the children that participate in the program.

DS: Sound Minds sets our students up for academic success beyond their musical participation. We track our students’ performance academically year over year and we see massive improvement compared to their peers who are progressing much less quickly. So we find that that is a huge benefit. And all of that comes from the skills they are learning from musicianship.

CSO: How do the students do in terms of musical progress?

DS: Our students get a big head start on their musical skills. By starting in the second grade we are two to three years ahead of most Elementary school programs in the Bay Area and that leads to a lot of success for them. By sixth grade, they’re displaying skills that high school students are learning in other orchestra programs. So that’s really exciting to see.

This last year, our students did a side-by-side rehearsal with the Dougherty Valley High School orchestra and our 6th graders were keeping up with those high school kids, like, no sweat! One of the high school kids said “Wow, you know, I didn’t even learn this until tenth grade!” So it was really exciting to see that our kids are way ahead of the game by starting so early.

CSO: Why does Sound Minds matter?

AH: One reason I think Sound Minds is really is important to this community is that this community is under a lot of economic stress. In being with the program 7 years, I’ve seen that worsen over time. I see houses where more and more cars are parking because they have to let out a room in their house to a tenant because they need to make ends meet, so they can get food for their family.

Populations like this don’t have any resources left over to do things like get an instrument for their child or get lessons for their child, so I feel like what we can give them is something that they wouldn’t get otherwise.

AH: We had a student here who was part of the pilot program—Diego. He played the cello and he was a very charming little guy and he told the principal one time that he wanted to become a musician. The principal reminded him that he already was a musician, and so he said, “Well, I want to take it to the next level.”

To me, knowing Diego and where he came from—he was a little bit unruly when he was a younger student, and sometimes he struggled and wanted to quit—but then he took it upon himself to continue to the very end and he is now having success in middle school as a result. I’m very proud of students like Diego who realize that if they stick with something that might be difficult, that they might not get in the first year or two, that they have a whole world of rewards that can come back to them as a result.

DS: With Sound Minds, it’s special to see the cohesiveness of the community that forms among the students. Even within the first year, they start to think together and work together and that cohesion builds into really deep friendships… so that by the time they graduate they feel like they really belong somewhere.

They’ve also by then connected to the wider community, so they’ve got friends now at a high school many miles away, and they have an opportunity to transition to a program at the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts where they then connect to an even wider artistic community in the Bay Area. I feel like that community they develop is the most important thing.

CSO: What is your hope for the future for these kids?

AH: My hope is that this program has shown them that there is a wider world out there for them, and that despite any temporary circumstances that they might be going through, that this is an opportunity for them to connect to a broader world and to go places—either in their imagination or literally—that they never would have imagined otherwise. So I feel that is something really important that we can give them for the future.

DS: I feel that Sound Minds gives our students a lot of confidence in their ability to learn and be lifelong learners. I know that in my own life that music took me places I never would have dreamed of going — overseas, to Europe and Russia, meeting people from all over the world. It really broadened my own outlook. I try to share with my students on a daily basis that that world is out there and that if they work hard and express themselves in such a beautiful way, that someday they might be able to do something like that too.

Your donation supports:

A season of exciting concerts featuring amazing professional musicians and stellar guest artists — all right here in Walnut Creek

Sound Minds — providing intensive music training and transforming the lives and futures of local children in one of the most economically disadvantaged parts of the state

Emerging composer talent through the highly-regarded Young American Composer-in-Residence program

www.californiasymphony.org/crescendo or call the California Symphony office at 925 280 2490 for assistance.

This is one article in a series of five about the California Symphony’s El Sistema-inspired music education program, Sound Minds. Others include:

View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com

View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com

Learn more about the Sound Minds program at www.californiasymphony.org/sound-minds or call the California Symphony Office at 925.280.2490.

SOUND MINDS STORIES: The Students Have Their Say

Fame, family, and the trials of ugly handwriting: Sound Minds students tell all.

Fourth grade Sound Minds students Karla, Rick and Nick.

We talked to students at E. M. Downer Elementary School about their experience with the Sound Minds program. With contributions from second graders Mia, Rebecca and Paloma (violin); and fourth graders Yvonne, Anong, Rick, and Michelle (cello), and Karla and Nick (violin).

Why do you like Sound Minds?

Mia—I just like it. The teacher is nice to me and she’s kinda funny.

Rick — It’s fun. You get to make new friends.

Nick — I can make new friends, I can play an instrument and when I grow up… I can be famous and be rich!

Paloma sang the violin song for us. It goes like this:

This is my violin, this is where I put my put my chin.

E, A, D, G are the four strings, and the F-holes let it ring

Here’s the front, here’s the back. If I drop it, IT WILL CRACK!

So I hold in rest position, close to me as you can see.

Left: Second grader Paloma with her cardboard replica instrument. Right: Fourth grader Yvonne, who just started trying to write her own music, thanks to inspiration from Sound Minds teacher Ms Christine.

Why did you join Sound Minds?

Rebecca—I wanted to join Sound Minds because my sister did it before when she was a little kid. And she was at this school and I saw a picture of her with her violin.

Karla—I joined because my sister used to be here and she was so excited. It’s such a great place to be because you get to hang out with your friends and play music!

Yvonne—The reason I joined Sound Minds is because my sister joined it before me and I wanted to know how it was to have this experience, because other schools don’t have it and I wanted to take the chance I got.

Anong — It’s my start to make my life better, and to make my family happier.

Fourth grader Anong focusing hard in Ms. Amy Leung’s cello class.

Michelle — I joined the program because I thought it was cool and my sister did it. Four people in my family have been in Sound Minds.

Karla — I get to play with my friends and sometimes make new friends through music, and you get to express your emotions.

Rick—In the future, I can become a musician, get a lot of money and be famous!

What do you like most about Sound Minds?

Yvonne—The thing I like most about Sound Minds is that every year you get a hard piece of music and the more you practice, the easier it is to play.

Anong—My favorite part of Sound Minds is that you can educate yourself and learn new things. You can learn something new rather than just like, be boring. It’s better than just going home.

Michelle — There’s just nothing to do at home so now I can just practice the cello.

Rick—The best class in Sound Minds is Ms. Amy Leung’s class, because I get to play my instrument.

Karla—We get to sing and let out our expressions through music. Did you know that your left part of your brain controls your right hand and your right part controls your left hand? I learned that from Miss Christina.

Your donation supports:

A season of exciting concerts featuring amazing professional musicians and stellar guest artists — all right here in Walnut Creek

Sound Minds — providing intensive music training and transforming the lives and futures of local children in one of the most economically disadvantaged parts of the state

Emerging composer talent through the highly-regarded Young American Composer-in-Residence program

www.californiasymphony.org/crescendo or call the California Symphony office at 925 280 2490 for assistance.

This is one article in a series of five about the California Symphony’s El Sistema-inspired music education program, Sound Minds.

View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com

View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com

Learn more about the Sound Minds program at www.californiasymphony.org/sound-minds or call the California Symphony Office at 925 280 2490.

SOUND MINDS STORIES: The Academic Coordinator

The California Symphony’s Sound Minds music education program teaches life skills, raises English and Math test scores, and inspires a community, says Academic Coordinator Sonia Wong.

Sound Minds students: Left—a second grader with the cardboard replica violin she will use to learn proper instrument care; Right—a fourth grade student plays us a tune on her cello and tells us about the piece of music she is composing in Miss Christina’s class.

Sonia Wong is Literacy Coach at E. M. Downer Elementary School in San Pablo, CA, where 94% of students qualify for the federal free or reduced price lunch program and 69% are English language learners. She has been overseeing the Sound Minds program as Academic Coordinator since the launch of the pilot program in 2012.

CSO: You’ve been looking after this program for 6 years now. What changes have you observed in that time?

SW: I’ve observed a lot of changes and surprising growth in our students who’ve participated in the Sound Minds Program. You can see the growth occurring around fourth grade — they start with us in second, and by fourth grade, they just kind of zoom past their classmates in studying, in reading, and just in all kinds of academic areas.

CSO: Can you talk a little about the academic impact of this program?

SW: It’s really important for our students to become really good readers. Every year, we test our students with a program called STAR reading. We hope that our students at mid year will have half a year’s growth. We noticed that our Sound Minds students at every grade level outscored the non Sound Minds students by producing more than half a year’s growth. They’re doing really well in becoming better readers.

They say students’ brains stop developing around 7 years old but with music, they get to continue growing their brains. The kids at Downer Elementary don’t have English spoken at home, and so we teach them English here, and music helps them with their development of language.

CSO: What about social behaviors and growth?

SW: I’ve noticed a lot of social growth with our Sound Minds students. Many teachers tell me that their Sound Minds students are more focused. They listen better, they follow directions better, and they just seem to be able to concentrate a lot more than the non Sound Minds in class. The teachers welcome Sound Minds students — especially in the upper grades — because they know that they are going to get a good quality student that just works really hard. They are really hard workers. It’s really exciting to see them excel.

CSO: What is your wish for the future for Sound Minds?

SW: Students who belong to a group stay in school longer and perform better academically.

So that’s my wish for the Sound Minds students, that they will find their niche in music, and will continue in middle school (which is really hard!), but if you have a group, you can keep it together. And then on into High School: if they have a group they belong to, they will be ready for college.

At the end of the day, we are getting them to be college-ready and career-ready. With the social skills that they develop with Sound Minds, it can really take them far. We’re starting to see that with our alumni, which is really exciting.

Music is an important part of our students’ souls: It’s not just for the academic success that they achieve, but it’s also for their souls.

CSO: Concerts have been at capacity the past couple of years. What do you think is happening there?

SW: I have noticed that more parents and extended families are coming to the concerts. I think the kids are practicing more at home… Maybe the parents see them practice and then want to see the results when they come to the concert!

Fundamentally, our parents want what’s best for their children. They have a certain idea about what it means to play the violin or the cello and what that can do for your life. They have wishes for their children, and maybe for themselves. They might say they always wanted to learn the violin, and now their child gets to do it. And so they’re going to give them the permission to do it and support them as much as they can. They’ll do their best in their busy lives to pick them up, and bring them for concerts, and buy them their dress whites and shoes.

We are a poor community but they still have hopes and dreams, just as all other parents have for their kids.

CSO: Any message you’d like to pass along to California Symphony supporters?

SW: Sound Minds is a real partnership between the California Symphony and Downer Elementary School. We believe in the program so much that we use funding that could be used in other areas to support Sound Minds, along with the California Symphony. So we are very grateful to Symphony donors for the money, and the teachers that they provide for our students. We couldn’t do it without the California Symphony.

We’d like to really say thank you for making us a part of your community.

Your donation supports:

A season of exciting concerts featuring amazing professional musicians and stellar guest artists — all right here in Walnut Creek

Sound Minds — providing intensive music training and transforming the lives and futures of local children in one of the most economically disadvantaged parts of the state

Emerging composer talent through the highly-regarded Young American Composer-in-Residence program

www.californiasymphony.org/crescendo or call the California Symphony office at 925.280.2490 for assistance.

This is one article in a series of five about the California Symphony’s El Sistema-inspired music education program, Sound Minds.

View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com

Learn more about the Sound Minds program at www.californiasymphony.org/sound-minds or call the California Symphony Office at 925.280.2490.

SOUND MINDS STORIES: The Principal

The Sound Minds music education program is transforming the lives of local underprivileged students — and giving Principal Marco Gonzales a way to talk to one struggling student.

Edward M. Downer Elementary School Principal Marco Gonzales

Marco Gonzales is Principal at E. M. Downer Elementary School in San Pablo, CA, where up to a third of students live below the poverty line. He lobbied hard for his school to be part of the original Sound Minds pilot program with the California Symphony in 2012 and he has championed the initiative ever since.

CSO: It’s been six years since the pilot program was launched. Are you still excited about the Sound Minds music education program?

MG: I’m still super excited about the program. The program brings a ton of energy, engagement and involvement in our school. This is my 23rd year of being a Principal and it’s still one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done in a school setting. Sound Minds has become an institution. It’s become a part of our school that is just what we do here. And it all started because of the connection between our school, E. M. Downer, and the California Symphony and the donors and supporters.

CSO: The program is founded on El Sistema principles so it’s not just a music education program, it was conceived as an instrument of social change. Living here in the Bay Area, which is generally quite affluent, why would you say we need a social change program here?

MG: I’m quoting somebody famous who said that all great societies need the Arts. The Arts for us, here in our school through Sound Minds, is an opportunity to make a connection with the bigger world, and for the kids to build a sense of identity, a sense of empowerment, and a sense of accomplishment and confidence.

When you’re a kid from an immigrant family that’s not part of mainstream America, you need something that will anchor you; you need something that you can draw upon when things get tough. That’s what I think happens with our kids here. They develop a self-confidence. And we know it shows in the classrooms as well, because they are outperforming their classmates in our local and state tests.

CSO: Two-thirds of students at your school are English language learners. How has Sound Minds affected English learners?

MG: I think our English learners here at E. M. Downer who are part of Sound Minds grow because of their exposure to another world, another language really. They learn about not only the music but where it music comes from, the history of music, and who are the composers of the pieces they learn. With the academic piece of our program, they get additional classroom time, so there’s a focused part of the day where they are working on improving academics and especially oral language.

CSO: You’ve said that student council members and “Dragon of the Month” tend to be Sound Minds students.

MG: It’s true: Sound Minds students tend to gravitate to leadership positions in our school. I think that what happens with Sound Minds students is that there’s a level of pride and accomplishment. It just gives our kids a place to belong. It gives them natural friendships where they speak the same language — they have the same excitement about their instrument or what they’ve learned — and they’re teaching one another. This is their team, this is their little in-house family and last year’s sixth graders were a great example of that. This was their school, this was their program, this was their identity. And I’m starting to see that come out now in the next wave, and that makes me really happy.

CSO: The kids from the pilot program who joined Sound Minds back in second grade graduated to middle school last year. Can you talk a little about that group?

MG: The original group of kids who joined Sound Minds were sixth graders last year. Some of them were really academic stars of our school — that was part of who they were — and some of them weren’t. Some of them who weren’t the stars academically became the leaders of the program. And there was a kid named José who was like that.

He moved out of the area, so it wasn’t easy for him to stay with the program, so it took more of a commitment. He had to ride the bus by himself sometimes so he could participate. He had his moment of not being sure if he could keep doing it because it wasn’t really easy. And he stuck with it! And at the sixth grade promotion ceremony, after the students performed, he gave us credit for helping believe in him when he didn’t believe in himself. I think there were a lot of his classmates who felt that way.

Our boys and girls now have an opportunity to take their skills to the new school and a new level because there is now a strings orchestra at the middle school that we feed into, so it doesn’t stop here. Now it really feels like this is the beginning of a long-term love or commitment for them around their music, around their violin and around their cello.

CSO: What other impact have you observed? Any anecdotes you can share?

MG: Recently a student came to my office after misbehaving in class. I mentioned I noticed her focus at the Winter Concert, and I said it seems like you’re really enjoying Sound Minds.

She looked at me like, “Are you serious? I LOVE my violin.”

And then I had a place where I could really talk to her about behavior and focus in the classroom and following the rules. It was affirmation of what we’re doing and why, and that kids are discovering these talents that they never knew they had, or their love of music through an instrument that is not part of the modern music world. When Gabriella said that to me, that was just amazing. This is why we do the program.

There are a couple of kids who have gone through the child protective system and they’re still here and they keep coming. Sound Minds becomes a place where they can be part of a bigger community and feel normal — they are doing what everyone else is doing versus maybe when they go home where it’s really not the case.

Diego has gone back and forth again between his grandmother and his mother. And where there’s one or two cases, there’s two or three more where we don’t know all the details. Even Gabriella, the young lady we spoke of who said she loved her instrument — she’s in the middle of a family custody back and forth — half the time with dad, half the time with mom. But she loves her violin and she’s here every day. Sound Minds provides students like her an anchor in many ways.

CSO: What do you see as the future for Sound Minds?

MG: The future for Sound Minds is that I hope stays here forever! And that California Symphony and our school continue to partner to make this a reality, and that future generations of students will come back and will be tutors and aids in the program, and that there will just be a cycle of kids learning and teaching as part of Sound Minds.

We’re competing with a lot of other interests in the world these days — video, and the whole world out there. What makes me excited is that every concert, I watch our kids being so focused and so committed to what they’re doing… It just comes out of them: their focus, their behavior, their teamwork, their understanding that they are part of a bigger thing — that it’s not just them.

*Students’ names have been changed to protect the identities of the individuals.

Your donation supports:

A season of exciting concerts featuring amazing professional musicians and stellar guest artists — all right here in Walnut Creek

Sound Minds — providing intensive music training and transforming the lives and futures of local children in one of the most economically disadvantaged parts of the state

Emerging composer talent through the highly-regarded Young American Composer-in-Residence program

www.californiasymphony.org/crescendo or call the California Symphony office at 925 280 2490 for assistance.

View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com

Learn more about the Sound Minds program at www.californiasymphony.org/sound-minds or call the California Symphony Office at 925.280.2490.

Something Old, Something New— Something Different

The 2017–18 season finale features two European masterpieces (“Something Old”), a world premiere (“Something New”), and a program with a difference

At first glance, the line up for the California Symphony’s May 6 season closer —SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW—may look like business as usual. However delve deeper, and there is more to the finale than might initially meet the eye.

Balch — like a broken clock (World Premiere)

Sibelius — Symphony №3

Brahms — Piano Concerto №2, with Haochen Zhang, piano

1. A World Premiere

First on the program is the debut performance of like a broken clock, written by Young American Composer in Residence Katherine Balch (2017–2020). By definition, a world premiere is new and therefore pretty special, so we won’t labor the point. (You can read more about Balch and her fascinating approach to composing here.)

2. A Symphony That’s Short

Next up is Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’ Symphony №3.

Pro-fans will notice that this is a break with the common pattern of classical music concert programming, which usually places the symphonic work at the end, after intermission. For this program, the running order is flipped, with the symphony before the break and the piano concerto at the end.

The reason for the flip is the relative length of the pieces: For a symphony, Sibelius’ Symphony №3 is a comparatively brief piece, clocking in at 31 minutes. It even comprises one fewer movement than the usual four you might expect from a symphonic work. This is the result of Sibelius choosing to move away from the Romantic style of his previous two symphonies — long, expansive works, influenced by the likes of Tchaikovsky — to explore a more focused, compressed style, characteristic of later composers.

3. A Concerto That’s Like a Symphony

After intermission and standing in contrast to the economy of the Sibelius symphony comes the mighty Brahms’ Piano Concerto №2. Delivered 22 years after his first, which was initially savaged by critics, Brahms’ second piano concerto is a grand and sweeping piece in the tradition of Romantic composers, with moments of drama and tenderness and culminating in thrilling finale. Brahms jokingly described it to a friend as a “tiny, tiny piano concerto,” but in fact, it’s a monumental piece that is often described as a “symphony with piano.”

Most concertos have a straightforward, “fast-slow-fast” three-movement structure, but Brahms added an extra fast second movement (the scherzo), so it’s a real workout for conductor, orchestra and soloist alike. For the soloist, it is also fiendishly difficult to play.

Taking on the challenge is acclaimed piano virtuoso Haochen Zhang, who won the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at age 19. (Read more about this unique talent here.) Zhang first learned the piece at 15 and he performs it for only the second time in his career at the season finale.

“Brahms has always been one of my favorite composers, and this concerto certainly has given me an overwhelming joy everytime I listened or played it. It’s a perfect embodiment of this combination of grandness and intimacy and is perhaps why it’s so enduringly charming yet so challenging to interpret.” — Soloist Haochen Zhang on Brahms Piano Concerto №2.

4. A Special Reunion

Haochen Zhang and then Music Director candidate Donato Cabrera in 2013.

Guest artist Haochen Zhang last played with us five years ago when Donato Cabrera was a guest conductor, auditioning for the role of Music Director for the California Symphony. (Zhang played Beethoven’s Piano Concerto №4 — read more about that performance here.) The concert wowed critics, audiences, and the selection committee, and led to Cabrera’s appointment to the role he has held for the past five seasons.

Zhang says, “I recall lots of fond memories from the last time I was there. The Orchestra was really devoted and enthusiastic throughout the rehearsals, and Maestro Cabrera was not only a great conductor but such a supportive collaborator to a young musician like me.”

Cabrera chimes in: “I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to bring back Haochen since we first worked together in 2013 on Beethoven’s Piano Concerto №4. I could tell through his approach to the Beethoven that he’d bring the same wonderful singing qualities to the Brahms Piano Concerto №2.”

The California Symphony’s 2017–18 season finale concert SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW takes place Sunday, May 6 at 4PM in Walnut Creek at the Lesher Center for the Arts.

For tickets and information, visit californiasymphony.org

Haochen Zhang: Veteran Pianist at Age 27

Season finale guest artist Zhang first wowed audiences at the age of 5

Then and now: At left, Zhang plays for family in preparation for his first professional gig, just shy of his 5th birthday. Right: Haochen Zhang now.

In demand internationally for nearly a decade now, Haochen Zhang first rose to prominence with his 2009 win at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at just 19. However, his musical journey began much, much earlier: As a kindergartner, while friends were playing in the sandbox, Zhang was playing Mozart to great acclaim in his native China.

The Early Years

When Zhang was introduced to the piano a few months before his 4th birthday, he says it looked like a big toy to him, and when his mom asked if he’d like to learn to play, he embraced the opportunity. He says his mom “felt like I learned the piano faster than other children at the same age.”

At age 5, he dazzled a Shanghai Concert Hall audience with his interpretations of music by Bach, Mozart, and Haydn. By 6, he had debuted with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. When he was 11, Zhang toured major cities across China performing Beethoven, Mozart, and Chopin.

Success and accolades continued and in 2002, at 12 years of age, Zhang became the youngest winner in the history of the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians.

Coming to America

2005 marked a turning point as Zhang came to the US to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia under Gary Graffman, who also taught major stars like Lang Lang and Yuja Wang. It was a challenging time for the young prodigy, especially after mom’s visa expired and she had to return home to China, leaving fifteen-year-old Zhang to make his way on his own in a foreign country and with limited English language skills.

Zhang with his mother around the time he relocated to the US to study music.

“I had learned to speak English before I came to the States, but only to the degree of simple conversation and very basic reading. Of course, I had to suffer quite a bit in my first school year in the States. But that was nothing compared to a much bigger challenge: the culture shock of an utterly different environment, and the loneliness of living by myself for the first time.”—Haochen Zhang remembering his move to the U.S. at 15.

Zhang’s Big Break

Zhang garnered international attention in 2009 when he won gold at the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition—arguably the highest-profile piano competition in the world, which is held every four years in Fort Worth, TX. At 19, Zhang became the second youngest ever winner of the gold medal and the first from an Asian country.

Life After Gold

After winning the $20,000 cash prize, a recording contract, and a raft of international concert tour dates, Zhang embarked on a three-year tour across the United States, Americas, Asia and Europe, playing an astonishing 200 concerts at top venues across the globe. In 2017, he won the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, awarded to only 5 outstanding musicians each year. He also released his first studio album CD the same year.

Now 27 years old, Haochen Zhang performs the immense and challenging Brahms Piano Concerto №2 in the California Symphony season finale concert SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW under Music Director Donato Cabrera at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek on Sunday May 6 at 4PM.

“Brahms has always been one of my favorite composers, and this concerto certainly has given me an overwhelming joy everytime I listened or played it. It’s a perfect embodiment of this combination of grandness and intimacy and is perhaps why it’s so enduringly charming yet so challenging to interpret.” — Haochen Zhang on Brahms Piano Concerto №2.

For information and tickets, visit www.californiasymphony.org.

Composer-in-Residence Katherine Balch on Cuckoo Clocks, California, and Composing in Color

The California Symphony’s May 6 season finale includes the world premiere of Balch’s “like a broken clock”

California Symphony Young American Composer-in-Residence (2017–2020). Photo credit KatieL Photography.

We caught up with Composer-in-Residence Katherine Balch to learn more about like a broken clock, the first of three pieces she will deliver during her three-year residency with the California Symphony. Balch beat out 130 other applicants in a newly revamped, “blind” selection process to win the highly-regarded, highly competitive residency, and she is the first woman composer to take up the position in the program’s 26 year history.

The title of the piece receiving its world premiere in Walnut Creek on May 6 is inspired by a line in a song called “In California,” by singer-songwriter Joanna Newsom:

Sometimes I am so in love with you

(Like a little clock

That trembles on the edge of the hour

Only ever calling out “Cuckoo, cuckoo”)

— From “In California” by Joanna Newsom

CSO: Why is the title like a broken clock all in lower case?

KB: The title is in lower case in reference to the Joanna Newsom lyric and also because to me it signals that this piece is part of a larger whole that deals with the musical ideas I’m interested in right now, which often cross pollinate my music.

CSO: Your composition process involves a lot of drawing and sketching. As simply as possible(!), can you explain what this graphic is and how it relates to the piece?

Balch describes her sketching as “a sort of pre-compositional drawing of the formal structural and sonic palette of the piece.”

KB: Usually, my process for writing a piece begins with a lot of generating / sketching out musical ideas, and then at a certain point I try to imagine the piece as a whole in my head.

This drawing is a representation of the whole piece, and guides me as I through-compose the material. I think very visually, so representing sounds with colors and shapes helps me remember them as I begin the process of “transcribing” the sounds in my imagination to the page.

CSO: You flew out from New York for your first rehearsal reading with the California Symphony in January. Did you make any adjustments to the score as a result? What did you learn from the experience?

KB: Yes, I made a ton of changes! I was so surprised how helpful and informative a half-hour of reading could be. Listening back to the recording helped me make a million tiny adjustments to the score (dynamics, balance, doublings, simplifying) and also some larger ones (I changed the end and added about a minute of music). It also helped me add in orchestration details and filter out extraneous ones.

I am so grateful to the orchestra for helping me make this a better piece! I am a compulsive revisor, and it’s such an unusual experience to get the chance to make revisions before a premier performance like that.

“Katie’s approach to composition is full of inventiveness and whimsy. I think our audience will not only hear the implications that the title of the piece implies, but will also be surprised by how she goes about creating these sounds.” — Music Director Donato Cabrera

Balch’s piece—the “something new” in a season finale concert entitled Something Old, Something New — receives its premiere on Sunday, May 6. The “somethings old” on the program are supplied by Sibelius’ Symphony №3 and Brahms’ Piano Concerto №2, played by piano virtuoso Haochen Zhang.

For more information, please visit californiasymphony.org.

Piano Sensation Haochen Zhang Returns after a Pivotal Debut

Haochen Zhang reunites with Music Director Donato Cabrera five years after their first “glittering” collaboration

For internationally acclaimed, award-winning pianist Haochen Zhang, the California Symphony’s 2017–18 season finale concert SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW marks Zhang’s second time performing with the orchestra—five years after his 2013 debut and a concert which holds special significance in the 31-year history of the organization.

In the three seasons after founding Music Director Barry Jekowski’s departure from the California Symphony in 2010, audiences in Walnut Creek welcomed a total of 12 guest conductors to the podium as the organization searched for a successor. Towards the end of that search, for what would be his final chance to impress, then Music Director candidate Donato Cabrera led the orchestra in a program he devised which featured music by Adams, Prokofiev, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto №4.

The guest artist he selected to feature on that program was 22-year-old piano sensation Haochen Zhang — one of the youngest ever winners of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and already an established soloist who was in-demand internationally.

On his winning performance at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, The Dallas Morning News observed that Haochen Zhang “demonstrated a musical maturity almost unimaginable in one so young… he impressed with depth of musical understanding and subtle expressive nuance.”

It proved a wise choice.

In a review of the March 2013 concert, the Mercury News declared: “The afternoon’s centerpiece was a glittering performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto №4, with pianist Haochen Zhang as soloist. Cabrera shaped this radiant score with elegance and precision, and Zhang… was a strong, stylish partner.”

The review continues: “Zhang, a 22-year-old native of China, resists the swooning excess that besets many of his contemporaries in performances of Beethoven’s music. In the concerto’s first movement, his playing was assured and briskly emphatic; the finale came across with arresting, clear-eyed vigor.”

And as for Cabrera?

The Mercury News’ review headline says it all: “Guest conductor Cabrera, California Symphony make a perfect match in concert.” The piece continued: “Cabrera, conducting with impressive energy and meticulous focus, drew vibrant, dynamic playing from the ensemble.” Clearly, it was enough to persuade the selection committee and soon after the concert, Cabrera was appointed California Symphony’s second ever Music Director, a position he has held for 5 years and counting.

“I recall lots of fond memories from the last time I was there. The orchestra was really devoted and enthusiastic throughout the rehearsals, and Maestro Cabrera was not only a great conductor but such a supportive collaborator to a young musician like me.”—Haochen Zhang on his 2013 California Symphony debut.

On Zhang’s return, Cabrera comments: “I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to bring back Haochen since we first worked together in 2013 on Beethoven’s Piano Concerto №4. I could tell through his approach to the Beethoven that he’d bring the same wonderful singing qualities to the Brahms Piano Concerto №2.”

Zhang agrees: “One could argue that Beethoven 4 and Brahms 2 share a certain kind of likeness, in the sense that both are large-scale works full of Germanic spirit yet intimate reflections, which makes me look forward even more to our collaboration this time.”

The California Symphony’s season finale concert SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW takes place on Sunday, May 6 at 4 PM at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.

Visit www.californiasymphony.org for tickets and more information.