Season Archive: 2017/18

Sun, Sep 24, 2017, 5:00 pm
Royce Hall

Carlos Izcaray, conductor
Aubree Oliverson, violin

Strauss: Don Juan (17 minutes)
Bruch: Violin Concerto in G minor (24 minutes)
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 12 (40 minutes)

To begin our 53rd season, Music Director Carlos Izcaray leads a concert sponsored by the family of John Liebes. Featuring beloved works by Richard Strauss and Dmitri Shostakovich; with twenty year old Concerto Competition winner Aubree Oliverson on Bruch’s virtuosic Violin Concerto in G minor.

Sun, Oct 22, 2017, 6:00pm
LACMA’s Bing Theater

AYS Principals Chamber Ensemble

Mozart: String Quartet in D Major, K499 (26 minutes)
Montgomery: Strum (6 minutes)
Brahms: String Quartet No. 1 in C minor (30 minutes)

Free Concert   /   No Reservations Necessary

AYS returns to LACMA’s Sundays LIVE to feature a program selected by AYS concertmaster Gallia Kastner. This performance will also be broadcast live on KUSC as part of their Sundays Live series.

Kensington Presents:
AYS + BØRNS
Fri, Oct 27, 2017, 7:00 pm
The Viaduct

BØRNS, vocalist
AYS Chamber Ensemble

A unique and exciting pairing of the euphoric pop music of BØRNS with the untouchable quality of classical music from an exceptionally talented chamber ensemble of AYS musicians, this unlikely concert at the Viaduct sold-out (550 tickets) within 30 minutes of going on sale. The performance will open with an instrumental set performed by AYS, leading into a set of BØRNS chart-topping hits reimagined for chamber orchestra, with BØRNS himself providing his original vocals. Then BØRNS and his band will take the stage to present music from his upcoming album.

This sold-out event is the inaugural project of the AYS Vanguard (young professionals council) in partnership with Kensington Presents. Interested in joining the Vanguard council? Email: Alice.Dutton@AYSymphony.org

Sun, Nov 19, 2017
4:00 pm Q&A
4:30 pm Concert
7:00 pm Dinner Party
Royce Hall

4pm Q&A, 4:30pm Concert

Carlos Izcaray, conductor
Jon Burlingame, host

John Williams: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial score (First half: 66minutes, second half: 51 minutes)

Tickets: $15 (free for Members)

Be sure to ‘phone home’ and tell your friends and family: AYS is performing John Williams’ legendary score for E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial live-to-picture! Led by Music Director Carlos Izcaray, AYS invites you to experience this iconic film in a new, unique way. Join music and film enthusiasts at 4 pm for a Q&A with industry leaders moderated by Jon Burlingame, with the concert and film beginning at 4:30 pm.

7pm Dinner Party

After the concert, support AYS at an E.T.-themed dinner party, where you can celebrate with Maestro Izcaray and film music industry luminaries, honoring AYS Board Members David Newman and Steven Linder, pioneers of the live-to-film concert movement. Meal provided by Contemporary Catering with wines from Cobblestone Vineyards.

Concert/Film + Dinner packages start at just $350!

Sat, Feb 17, 2018, 2:00 pm
Royce Hall

Juan Felipe Molano, Resident Conductor

Tickets: Free 

Presenting selections from works by Leonard Bernstein, Charles Ives and Aaron Copland, with guiding narration from Resident Conductor Juan Felipe Molano, in the educational tradition of Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts. Shared as part of the “Bernstein at 100” centennial celebration.

Sat, Feb 17, 2018, 7:00 pm
Royce Hall

Juan Felipe Molano, resident conductor

Bernstein: Divertimento (15 minutes)
Copland: Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo (19 minutes)
Ives: Three Places in New England (19 minutes)
Bernstein: West Side Story Symphonic Dances (24 minutes)

Tickets: Free

AYS celebrates the 100th birthday of a legendary conductor, composer and musician with a Bernstein Centennial concert. This exciting program will showcase works by American composers Aaron Copland, Charles Ives and none other than “Lennie” himself!

Sun, Mar 25, 2018, 7:30pm
Walt Disney Concert Hall

Carlos Izcaray: conductor
Vladimir Feltsman: piano

Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine (4 minutes)
Adams: Tromba lontana (4 minutes)
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1 (15 minutes)
Higdon: Blue Cathedral (10 minutes)
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2 (16 minutes)

Tickets: $15-45 (Members get a 15% discount)

As part of the LA Phil’s Sounds About Town concert series, AYS performs an eclectic array of works by John Adams, Jennifer Higdon and Maurice Ravel. World renowned pianist Vladimir Feltsman, whose playing has been lauded for its “thunderous power” by the New York Times, joins the orchestra for Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

Sat, April 21, 2018
4:30 pm Q&A
5:00 pm Concert
7:30 pm Gala Dinner
Royce Hall

Q&A – 4:30 pm

Panelist: Joanna Demers

The concert is preceded by a Q&A at 4:30 pm, exploring the use of music to uplift the human spirit and effect change. Panelists include  Joanna Demers, Chair of the Musicology department at USC’s Thornton School of Music, who writes both scholarly and creative works examining philosophical themes in music.

Concert  – 5:00 pm

Carlos Izcaray, conductor
Robert Desiderio & Judith Light, narrators

Izcaray: Strike Fugaz, original composition, world-premiere
Revueltas: Sensemayá (7 minutes)
Copland: Lincoln Portrait (15 minutes)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 “Eroica” (48 minutes)

Tickets: Free 

This year’s gala concert features repertoire celebrating the triumph of the human spirit in a first-time collaboration with Human Rights Watch, with works by Revueltas and Beethoven, along with Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, narrated by actors Robert Desiderio and Judith Light. We are also thrilled to present the world premiere of Strike Fugaz, an original composition by Music Director Carlos Izcaray. 

Gala Dinner 7:30pm

Join AYS friends and orchestra members for our annual Gala Dinner, celebrating the continuing success of the American Youth Symphony, and honoring the centennial birthday of Edna Weiss. Held on a beautiful Spring night under the stars, AYS invites you to share in our biggest fundraising event of the year, to help provide extraordinary free concerts as a gift to this community!

Individual Dinner & Concert Packages start at $500. Tables for ten start at $5,000.

The 2018 Gala is Sponsored by:
The Flora L. Thornton Foundation, the Kaman Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts

Member’s Priority
Sat, May 12, 2018, 3:00 pm
Ann & Jerry Moss Theater
At the Herb Alpert Educational Village at New Roads School

STEPHEN SCHWARTZ: Beautiful City from Godspell, featuring Urban Voices
HARRY PARTCH: Two Studies on Ancient Greek Scales
“MOONDOG” LOUIS HARDIN: String Quartet in C Major, Mvt. 2 Romance
VIVALDI AND MARK GUTIERREZ: 58,000
VIVALDI: L’estro Armonico, Op. 3, Concertos No. 1, 3, 6, and 11
VIVALDI: Concerto No. 1 “Spring” from The Four Seasons 

Tickets: Free

We end the 2017/18 season with a very special chamber performance to thank our donors for all they do in support of AYS!

Our inaugural Musician Citizen Fellow, Spencer Baldwin, selected music for this unique event around the theme of “Home.” Each work featured on the program holds a deep connection to the issue of homelessness, including a newly added opening song, Beautiful City, presented in collaboration with Urban Voices Project, a choir made up of current and former residents of Skid Row.

Of the other composers featured, musical maverick Harry Partch dropped out of USC in 1922 and spent decades building his own instruments and composing in microtonal scales, while traveling the country as a transient worker. “Moondog” Louis Hardin, whose fans included Philip Glass and former-NY Philharmonic conductor Artur Rodziński, performed on the streets of New York City from the 1940s-70s, wearing a cloak and horned helmet, known to locals as “the Viking of 6th Avenue.”  Antonio Vivialdi, a Catholic priest as well as a composer, served from 1703-1740 as a music instructor at the Ospedale della Pieta, a Venetian orphanage known across Europe for presenting extraordinary musical performances. Together, these inspiring works prove that great art can come from unlikely places, and that music can sustain and uplift us during dark and challenging times.

Inspired by the theme of this event, AYS Bassist Mark Gutierrez has composed and will perform an original work of rhythmic poetry, set to a classical/hip-hop fusion of selections from the overture for Vivaldi’s 1733 opera Montezuma, arranged for string quartet and percussion. This work takes its name from the record number of people currently living without homes in the streets and shelters of LA County.

As part of this uplifting event and the Citizen Musician Initiative, AYS orchestra members will be volunteering with organizations providing support and services to our local homeless population.

This event is supported by Peter Mandell and Sarah Coade Mandell
Presented as part of their Hardly Strictly Classical Concert Series