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YOA Alumni Conducting Career News
•YOA veteran Gustavo Dudamel (YOA 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005) has been appointed Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In October 2009, Gustavo made headlines with his LA debut before an audience of more than 18,000 people. Congratulations! Gustavo plans to conduct YOA again in 2011.
•YOA Violin Darwin Aquino (YOA 2002) is now Principal Conductor of the Youth National Orchestra and of the System of Children and Youth orchestras of the Ministry of Culture of the Dominican Republic.
•Dietrich Paredes of Venezuela (YOA 2002), who served as concertmaster during YOA’s inaugural tour, is now a rising conductor in Venezuela. Dietrich has recently been awarded the position of Principal Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfonica Juvenil de Caracas, and also conducts the Simon Bolivar with frequency. This past July, Dietrich led a performance of Brahms’ Violin Concerto with acclaimed violinist Maurice Hasson.
•Since conducting YOA in an encore performance of Guillermo Marin's "Rita Esperanza se fue" at Hall of the Americas in the Organization of American States in August of 2009, Andres Lopera of Colombia (YOA trombone 2008, 2009) has founded and is the principal conductor of a 30 musician chamber orchestra at the University of Texas (Austin). Andres was recently the subject of an article in Colombia's most important newspaper, El Colombiano. The article can be read by clicking here.
YOA Alumni Solo and Orchestra Career News
• In March 2009, Alexander Bedenko (YOA 2005) began as Principal Clarinetist with The London Symphony Orchestra.
• Cellist Pablo Polanco (YOA 2005) of the Dominican Republic is persuing profesional music career in his home country. He is Co-Principal Violoncello of the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic and is also a member of the "Dominican Trio," as well as a professor at the National Youth Symphony Orchestra.
• Harpist Eugenia Espinales Correa (YOA 2002, 2003, 2004) is currently principal harp of the Radio Orchestra of France.
• Violin Maria Jimena Lovon Hidalgo recently returned from Singapore where she played the Navarra (Sarasate) duet for the country’s President and the ministers of his cabinet.
•In April 2009, violin Rachelle Hunt (YOA 2008) performed as a soloist with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Ecuador in Quito. She played Mozart's Fifth Violin Concerto and Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy.
•Cello Marilyn dos Santos (YOA 2006, 2008) has won the position of co-Principal with the Oregon Symphony.
• Márcio Cecconello YOA (2003-2005) passed the test for the Symphonic Orchestra of Porto Alegre and since 2006 has been the head of the second violin section in the same orchestra. He sometimes plays as a soloist and performs chamber and baroque music concerts with period instruments.
•Isaac Falcão Novais de Almeida (YOA 2007, 2008) plays the Timpani in the percussion section of the Symphonic Youth Orchestra July 2nd (from the NEOJIBA Project - Núcleos Estaduais de Orquestras Juvenis e Infantis da Bahia) in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. He has also studied under American/Venezuelan teachers through exchanges; he is currently an undergraduate student at Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), where he is studying with professor Jorge Sacramento de Almeida.
•5 YOA musicians (Rafael Betancourt, Alejandro Aldana, Ana Drobac, Emilio Argento and Rachelle Hunt) traveled to Germany in March 2009 to record a CD of Handel's oratorio, Alexander's Feast, with the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra. The musicians were in Germany for about a week for the project, and we will reunite in St. Petersburg in June for another performance of the work. In July they will perform St. John's Passion in Kiel (Germany) and Slovenia.
•Violin Rose Drucker (YOA 2006) is Principal second violin of the Boston Philharmonic and regularly performs with Emmanuel Music playing Bach Cantatas and chamber music.
•Clarinet Ana Catalina Ramirez of Puerto Rico (YOA 2005) and trumpet Flavio Gabriel Parro da Silva of Brazil (YOA 2005, 2006, 2007) have made it to the final of the YouTube Symphony Competition. To help them win seats in this new “all-star” orchestra, go to www.youtube.com/symphony and vote for Ana and Flavio!
•Jessica Hull-Dambaugh (YOA 2002) is in now her third season as Principal Flutist of the Charleston Symphony. She also holds the Third Flute/Piccolo position in the Central City Opera Orchestra in Colorado, where she spends her summers. Prior to moving to Charleston, Jessica was the Principal Flutist of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra and substituted regularly with the Washington DC Opera Orchestra, and Alexandria Symphony Orchestra.
•French horn André Gustavo Dalvio Gonçalves (YOA 2003, 2004, 2005) has been appointed full-time job with the Sao Paulo Symphony, Brazil’s most prestigious orchestra.
•Violinist Mary-Elizabeth Brown (YOA 2006, 2008) is presently serving as Assistant-Concertmaster of Orchestra London (Canada), in addition to performing regularly with a number of symphonies in North America and Europe.
•On October 1 2008 Raul Vergara (YOA 2003, 2004) began his duties as Associate Principal Timpanist and Percussionist with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.
•Kate Eakin (2002) has recently been appointed the English horn of the Quad City Symphony and the Illinois Symphony. Kate is also a member of the Battle Creek Symphony and the Millennium Chamber Players. She resides in Chicago, where she teaches at the Sherwood Conservatory at Columbia College and is the proprietor of Mechlin Reeds.
•Cello Aristides Rivas (YOA 2004, 2005) performs regularly with the Boston Philharmonic. More about Aristides can be read on his website.
•Bassist Jory Herman (YOA 2006) is beginning his 3rd season with the New World Symphony. Jory spent a month in the summer in Paris, France performing "Porgy and Bess" to sold out crowds at the Opera Comique. Also, during the summer, Jory has been a substitute with the National Symphony in Washington D.C. In 2007 he won 2nd place in the International Society of Bassists Solo Competition.
•Ana Catalina Ramírez (YOA 2005) has been appointed principal clarinet for the Mississippi Symphony.
•Harpist Earecka Tragenza (YOA 2006) has won the position of Principal Harp with the Spokane Symphony. Earecka assumed this function in April 2008.
•Stephanie Zimmerman (YOA 2002) now serves in a full-time French horn position within Rochester Philharmonic.
•Mateus Freire (YOA 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) has accepted a full-time position as violin in the Belle-Horizonte Orchestra. This new orchestra is one of the most important recent initiatives in classical music within Brazil.
•Jason Markzon (YOA 2003) has won the position of Principal Percussion in the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic.
•Karl Fenner (YOA 2006) has been appointed to the bass section of the Colorado Symphony.
•Carolina Beate (2003, 2004) is now playing with the Philadelphia Pops, the Pennsylvania Ballet, the AVA orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and the Delaware Symphony.
•Michael Robinson Jr. (YOA 2005, 2006) has won the orchestra fellow position with the Detroit symphony orchestra in 2007 until 2009.
•Jose Urquieta Plaza (2002) is currently studying for a Masters in Oboe in Karlsruhe, Germany, under the tutelage of Maestro Thomas Indermühle. He also teaches Oboe as a visiting professor in various institutions in Chile during his summer break.
•Alvaro Reyes (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008) recently won the position of 1st Concert Violin Assistant in the National Symphonic Orchestra of Guatemala. He is also a Violin professor at Guatemala's National Music Conservatory, a Violin professor at the Municipal Music School of Guatemala City and is the Violin professor at the Child Arts Center in San Juan Sacatepéquez, a center funded by World Vision.
•Sofia H. Almanza S. (YOA 2005, 2006) works in Italy since the beginning of the year 2007 with the Orchestra Symphonica Toscanini conducted by Lorin Maazel, and collaborates with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. In August of this year, Sofia participated in the "Luzern Music Festival" performing with the Luzern Festival Orchestra and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Claudio Abbado and Heinz Hollinger's conducting.
•Julian Gil Rodriguez has won a position as violinist in the Symphony Orchestra of Galicia in Coruña, Spain.
•Robert Hudson (YOA 2005) has won the Principal Timpani position with the Chattanooga Symphony.
•Gloria Britez Scolari (YOA 2005, 2008) of Paraguay, with the help of YOA, has been offered a full scholarship to come to the United States to study viola at Pittsburg State University, starting January 2009.
•Brenda Diaco (YOA 2003, 2004, 2005) of Argentina has since 2005 been acting as principal bassoon of the State Orchestra of Patagonia. She is enjoying her life working at "the end of the world!"
• Double bass Patricia da Silva (YOA 2008) has won The University of Southern Mississippi School of Music’s annual William T. Gower Competition, to appear as soloists with the orchestra.
• Double bass Sergio Bautista Ruiz (YOA 2002) is currently performing with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in Mexico.
• Violin Olialin Olarte Marin (YOA 2003, 2005, 2007) has been awarded a permanent chair in the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia.
• Catalina Calderón (YOA 2002, 2003, 2004), cellista de la Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica, iniciará un Artist Diploma en TCU bajo la tutela del prof. Jesús Castro-Balbi, en agosto del 2009.
YOA Alumni Chamber Music News
•Violinist Alexis Cardenas (YOA 2005) now plays in Recoveco, a celebrated quartet dedicated to the research, arrangement and reinterpretation of Venezuelan instrumental music. Their approach has to do with a new, classically-schooled, educated style, but allowing for improvisation as a fundamental element, leaving ample room for the spontaneous, the unexpected, the ability to extract the most from the virtuosity of each one of its members, resulting in unique and hardly repeatable performances. Alexis is based in Caracas & Paris, France.
•Pablo Moreno (YOA 2008) recently won the National Interpretation contest in Colombia. He is currently preparing for his pregrade exam. He is very happy with his new Oboe. He is preparing his next record with ENSAMBLE SINSONTE. In June he will be a soloist with the National Symphonic Orchestra of Colombia and in September will travel to France to study at the National Conservatory in Lyon for three months (this as a part of the prize for winning the National Interpretation contest).
•Sisters Bianca and Marilinda Garcia (YOA 2005, 2006) have formed a harp-flute chamber duo following their graduation from New England Conservatory that has performed along the east coast of the United States. Marilinda also works in a child advocacy program.
•As well as continuing in their careers as professional classical violinists, Felisa Hernandez (YOA 2006, 2008) and Maia Broido (YOA 2006) both perform regularly in Mariachi groups in Vancouver and Toronto. Felisa is Director and Founder of Mariachi Juvenil de Las Americas.
•Cellist Aristides Rivas (YOA 2002, 2003, 2004) was honored with a feature article on the musician in the Sunday insert magazine of the Boston Globe on 14 December 2008. Rivas is a member of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, a position held since 2005. Rivas also still plays the cuatro, and his cello repertoire includes many tunes from his native Venezuela's folk tradition.
YOA Alumni Artistic Administration Career News
•Trumpet Emma Murley (YOA 2002, 2004) has been appointed director of Artistic Administration for Alabama Symphony Orchestra.
•Violist Enrique Marquez (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) was recently appointed Festival Coordinator of the Music Festival of the Americas at Stowe, Vermont - summer home of the New York-based Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas. Upcoming concerts include a Gala at Lincoln Center in New York, as well as a tour to the Festival del Sole in Napa, California, where they will perform with Antonio Pappano, Sarah Chang, Leif Ove Andsnes, Nikolaj Znaider and Nina Kotova. In January Enrique performed Mahler's Third Symphony in Carnegie Hall with members of the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra to benefit children with HIV.
•Bassoonist Scott Harrison (YOA 2003, 2004, 2005) is currently Associate Director of Marketing for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and was recently selected to join the League of American Orchestra's Executive Leadership Program for Marketing and Development Professionals. This past summer, he traveled to Haiti to teach woodwinds at the Camp Musical de l'Ecole Sainte Trinite. Ever since he first participated in YOA, he has been interested in working with young musicians. This past summer, Scott flew to Haiti to spend a few weeks teaching at a music camp, something inspired by this time in YOA.
•Cellist Carrie Bean (YOA 2006) has been appointed Artistic Operations Coordinator of the Apollo's Fire Baroque Orchestra. She also performs as a cellist in this group. She received a Master of Music degree from Indiana University in 2008, and later that year toured with YOA to Colombia Panama, and the Vatican.
•Violist Katherine Wyatt (YOA 2005) writes, "I finished my masters in Viola Performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and went on to perform as a fellow with the New World Symphony from 2004-2006. From 2004-2006, I traveled and performed extensively with YOA, YOA Chamber Group (to Chihuahua, Mexico) and the Verbier Festival Orchestra. In 2006-2007 I participated in an Orchestra Management Fellowship program through the League of American Orchestras, and upon completion of this program, I accepted the position of Director of Education and Community Engagement with the North Carolina Symphony, I have held that position since Fall 2007. I teach and perform extensively in North Carolina, and I am Adjunct Professor of Viola at North Carolina State University. As Director of Education, I manage the education programs for the North Carolina Symphony, and this year I have created an Ensemble in the Schools program. This program takes chamber groups of musicians into classrooms in rural areas of North Carolina, bringing music to groups of children who will never have the opportunity to enjoy a full orchestra concert. Bringing classical music to diverse audiences and celebrating our unique and vibrant world cultures through music is what I have dedicated my life to!"
YOA Alumni Festival Leadership & Community Outreach News
•Clarinet Brian Viliunas (YOA 2006, 2007, 2008) is Founder and Director of the Sustainable Symphony, the newest orchestra in the Phoenix Valley. Inspired last sumer backstage before a concert last summer by Maestro Prieto, Viliunas and the Sustainable Symphony have given 2 concerts this spring with three more planned for the fall. More information, including audio samples and CDs, can be found at www.sustainablesymphony.org,
•Deborah Wanderly dos Santos, YOA violin (2005, 2006, 2008) is Founder and Artistic Director of the Music for Peace Festival in Chicago. This year's festival will take place between May 11 and May 16, 2009. Participating musicians include members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Alex Klein, Richard Young, and Rachel Barton Pine. To watch a news report from Deborah's 2009 Music For Peace Festival, click here.
•June 2009 marks the third annual Festival Alfredo de Saint-Malo, Panama’s first classical music festival, founded by former YOA cello Isaac Casal (YOA 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008). In 2008, the ASM Festival featured the performances with YOA chamber orchestra, conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, and guest soloist Paquito d’Rivera.
•Nicolas Giordano (YOA 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008) has founded the Sembrando Talentos musical outreach program in Montevideo, Uruguay. This initiative, first begun in August 2008, brings together a group of YOA musicians to coach and perform underserved youth in Uruguayan communities. Nicolas is currently based in the Netherlands. For a recent article on Sembrando Talentos, click here.
•Felipe David Luzuriaga Guaricela (YOA 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005), in addition to being Concertmaster of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Ecuador, is currently Director of the Children’s Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador at the Foundation for the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador.
•Amie Weiss (YOA 2006) has lived in New York City and worked as a freelance violinist since 2004. She is dedicated to performing new music and collaborating with artists from different fields. Recent projects have included touring internationally as a soloist with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, performances with singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens, The Knights Chamber Orchestra, and Quartet T in Seoul, Korea. She has performed chamber music with Robert Langevin, Mark O'Connor, Yo-Yo Ma, Paula Roberson, and others. Amie is the co-founder of a chamber music festival in State College, PA and a member of the Allsar Quartet, which has been in residency at Manhattan's Museum of Biblical Art since 2005. She has given world or regional premieres of music by composers including Brian Ferneyhough, James Dillon, Jay Eckerdt, Alvin Lucier, Mark O'Connor, Stefano Scodanibbio, and Meredith Monk. Amie studied North Indian classical music with sitarist Hasu Patel from 2000 to 2005. She has performed music of Asia and Eastern Europe with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, Quartet T, Musique sans Frontiers, the Knights, and musicians from Iran, India, Armenia, and Syria. In humanitarian projects, Amie has presented music with Mark O'Connor, Broadway Cares, and Quartet T. In the current season, Amie will participate on two Sony Classical recordings as a member of The Knights Chamber Orchestra, a conductorless group which has been praised by the New Yorker as "a little orchestra of some of the best strings-about-town", and that will also open the 2009 Dresden Musikfestspeile with soprano Dawn Upshaw and perform at the National Gallery in Dublin. Amie graduated from Oberlin Conservatory as a student of Milan Vitek. She currently studies baroque violin with Jorg-Michael Schwarz, and is a violin instructor at the 92nd St. Y as well as privately.
YOA Alumni Conservatory Career News
•Everhard Paredes (YOA 2003, 2004, 2006) has begun teaching at Manhattan school of music. Everhard also instructs at number of other music schools in the New York City area including the Noel Pointer Foundation and the Elisabeth Morrow Music School. He is to appear as soloist with Orchestra Celebrate in performances in NYC in November 2008.
•Diego Nasar (YOA 2005) lives near Hamburg (Germany), and this year he won the post of Academic (in viola) in the Hamburg Radio Orchestra for a year (under the direction of Christoph von Dohnány) and also in the Kiel Philharmonic. He directs the "Störphonie" Youth Orchestra (3rd Place prize in the "Jugend Musiziert") and is a professor in the "Kulturhof" music school in Itzehoe (near Hamburgo).
•Lacey Hays (YOA 2005, 2006, 2008) is professor of trumpet at Southern Nazarine University School of Music in Bethany, Oklahoma. She is working on a Doctorate in Musical Arts/Trumpet Performance and is a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Oklahoma. Lacey performs with the Wichita Grand Opera, Enid Symphony and Oklahoma City Philharmonic.
•Tiago Almeida (YOA 2003, 2004, 2005) is teaching as a professor at the Conservatório Dramático e Musical Dr. Carlos de Campos de Tatuí in Brazil.
YOA Alumni Popular Music Career News
•French horn Joshua Pantoja (YOA 2003, 2004, 2006) now leads Puerto Rican rock band Pantoja as lead guitarist and vocalist. The program Entre Nosotros profiled Josh in September. Pantoja performs frequently in New York, Miami, and San Juan.
•Costa Rican Trombone Marcial Flores (YOA 2005) has been touring recently with Ruben Blades. Blades is a well-known Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, and Latin jazz musician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres.
•Pianist Natalie Tenenbaum (YOA 2006) has recent graduated from The Julliard School and quickly established a career as an up-and-coming record producer in New York. Daniel Goldman (YOA 2008), also a recent graduate of Julliard, in August 2008 moved to Philadelphia to peruse a career in sound recording and record production. Daniel is currently interning in one of Philadelphia’s biggest studios.
•Violin Amie Weiss (YOA 2006) has recently given performances with singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens.
YOA Alumni Public Service Careers and Awards
•Patrick A. Woodard (YOA 2002) is currently the Government Relations Advocacy Fellow with the American Medical Association. A graduate of Georgetown University, Patrick has written health care policy for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, lobbied Congress for issues in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education, and sat on the American Medical Political Action Committee Student Advisory Board. Music, like health care, is an essential part of his life. Prior to becoming the Fellow with the American Medical Association, Patrick played violin professionally with the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra, the Reno Chamber Orchestra, and the Nevada Opera. He studied under Herbert Greenberg at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, and Philip Ruder at the University of Nevada. Patrick also attends the University of Nevada School of Medicine in Reno, Nevada, and will graduate in 2011, hoping to focus on the unique connection between health care policy and direct patient care.
•Clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester (YOA 2003, 2004) has been awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant. These grants, for instrumentalists only, have been awarded annually since 1976 to artists such as Jonathan Biss, Hilary Hahn and the Miró Quartet. A total of 109 grants have been made, and up to five are awarded per year. National educators, presenters, managers, composers and performers nominate Avery Fisher artists. Final selections are made by the executive committee, comprised largely of Lincoln Center brass: Emanuel Ax, pianist; David Finckel and Wu Han, artistic directors, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; Henry Fogel, president, League of American Orchestras; Anthony Fogg, artistic administrator, Boston Symphony Orchestra; Pamela Frank, violinist; Ara Guzelimian, dean, The Juilliard School; Nathan Leventhal, chairman, Avery Fisher Artist Program; Reynold Levy, president, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; Yo-Yo Ma, cellist; Zarin Mehta, president and executive director, New York Philharmonic; Jane S. Moss, vice-president, programming, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; and Joseph W. Polisi, president, The Juilliard School.
•In 2006, after graduating from the Tufts/NEC double-degree program, Marilinda Garcia (YOA 2006) ran for State Representative in New Hampshire and won. She is now serving in the Legislature, with a seat in the Committee on Children and Family Law. As part of my committee, she been working to streamline the family court system in an effort to reduce the time a child spends in limbo in the foster care system. She is also a instructor at Phillips Exeter Academy, St Paul's School, and Gordon College. Most recently, Marilinda started graduate school, perusing a Master of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Through her work, Marlinda writes, “I now have an even greater appreciation for YOA and its mission. It is amazing what can be achieved by the integration and cooperation of government, citizenry, and both the public and private sector.”