Young @ Art: Save the bassoon — and other heroic causes

Craig Smith | The New Mexican

2/21/2008 - 2/22/08

They come from Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Glorieta, and other places in Northern New Mexico. They range from grade-school age to post-high school. They like jazz, blues, mariachi, world music, classical music, and more. They're devoted to their craft and want to learn how to turn it into art. And when they're playing hard, they're working hard.

They are the some 280 musicians taking part this semester in the Santa Fe Youth Symphony Association. They perform in a variety of ensembles, including the Youth Symphony Orchestra itself — which plays standard classical repertoire you'd hear in any major concert hall — string orchestras at various skill levels, the newly founded Con Vivo! chamber strings group, and several jazz ensembles.

Students can help save "endangered" instruments — those generally less popular with students — by learning to play one, with lessons subsidized. This semester, that means bassoon, trombone, bass trombone, string bass, viola, or bass clarinet. Advanced players can learn by teaching through serving as mentors or coaches for younger aspirants. SFYSA's Mozart y Mariachi program provides violin instruction in several local elementary and middle schools as well as coordinating the Mariachi Estrella ensemble.

Because it's never too soon to give such musicians a chance to perform live, SFYSA offers a number of regular concerts each year. It also gives a special "Spotlight on Youth" program this weekend at the Scottish Rite Center. Hosted by Steven Smith, music director of the Santa Fe Symphony, the program highlights a number of performers: solo violinists and solo pianists, a piano duo, a saxophone duet and trio, a marimba ensemble, a flute quartet, and a soprano. The music ranges from Bach, Handel, Corelli, Vivaldi, and Dvorák to Aram Khachaturian, Felix Borowsky, and Lennie Niehaus, as well as traditional Zimbabwean folk songs. It should be a hot time in the center that night.

"There's quite a range of age of players in the 'Spotlight' concert," said the association's music director, Benjamin Klemme. "The youngest is a 6- year-old; the oldest are 18, in high school. All the students chosen are exceptional in their age group. All of them auditioned and won the audition.

"Our goal is that anyone who wants to play in an ensemble on their instrument can do it," Klemme added. "The only exception might be the top-level youth orchestra. That's limited in instrumentation. We can only accept so many clarinets, so many flutes, and so on.

"I don't think we turned any student away this year. I think there were some students who didn't make it into the ensemble they were hoping for, the first time around. But we found a place for them."

Klemme, who joined the association last fall, was chosen for his position out of a 45-member applicant pool. He has been assistant conductor of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra and the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado, and associate conductor of the Northern Iowa Youth Orchestra in Cedar Falls.

"As far as the achievement level here, compared to other places I've been, the participation is more accessible to the average high school musician than elsewhere," Klemme said. "The thing that I think is extraordinary about the kids I work with here, is the curiosity and the intellectual fervor they bring to performing."

Those who want to join a SFYSA ensemble must take part in a daily band or orchestra program in their school, and it's strongly suggested they also be taking private lessons. Beyond that, expectations are high at the start and rise quickly — and not all of them have to do with playing the notes.

"I expect the students in our ensembles to demonstrate a certain level of commitment to their peers," Klemme said. "That's exhibited through regular attendance at all rehearsals, being prepared, respecting those around them, and recognizing they're one of many trying to achieve one goal." Anyone teaching young people should instill that kind of community awareness, he added, whether the community is a string quartet, a brass band, or an orchestra.

"Musically, I expect them to try to go a little beyond the music — to go beyond playing the right notes to having an awareness of the context of the pieces we play and putting a little of their own personality into what we're playing. I try to share the historical context in which the piece is performed or written, and the theoretical aspects."

For the Youth Symphony Orchestra right now, that means working on several chunky works for a May 6 concert in St. Francis Auditorium of the New Mexico Museum of Art. There is a waltz from Tchaikovsky's ballet Sleeping Beauty; "The War March of the Priests" from the incidental music Mendelssohn wrote for Racine's play Athalia; three excerpts from Dvorák's Slavonic Dances, op. 46; and Carl Maria von Weber's Concertino in E-flat Major for clarinet and orchestra.

"We have a concerto competition twice annually, to feature a soloist on the winter and spring concerts," Klemme explained. "This time, a clarinetist won. I wasn't familiar at all with the Mendelssohn; it's charming in its own right."

It's all very well to talk about how many young players join a group like SFYSA, but how many stick around? Quite a few, Klemme said. "There is a fairly good retention — I believe it's around 80 percent. The organization is now in its 14th season, and we have some students that have been participating for 12 years. It's really exciting to the see the participation over such a long time, because then we have the ability to mold them artistically."

* The Santa Fe Youth Symphony Association is located in the Pink Church Art Space at 1516 Pacheco St. For information on classes, ensembles, and concerts, call 982-8483.

Details

• Santa Fe Youth Symphony presents "Spotlight on Youth"
• 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23
• Scottish Rite Center, 463 Paseo de Peralta
• $15 adults, $5 children 5-12, children under 5 admitted free; 982-8483