Greetings to all Musicians and Parents!
Playing in a good orchestra is a rare and wonderful thing! I have been drawn to it my entire life: it is absolutely necessary for my growth. Playing together with other fine musicians is the distillation of many musical traditions of our Western and Eastern culture: religious music, spiritual music, dance music, patriotic music, and entertainment music. All of these things are present in this wonderfully condensed form of orchestral music. Keeping this tradition alive is something I think is important.
As teachers and parents, we cannot allow classical music to disappear into a cultural void, especially here in Irvine. As a young boy, I grew up with a music-loving family that cultivated my love for music. It was never unusual for me to hear concerts by great artists either live or on videotapes in addition to my weekly private violin lessons. Discipline, consistency, and a never-give-up attitude were highly stressed in my earliest lessons, and these principles have stayed with me and helped me in every aspect of life. It is this same discipline and devotion which has opened opportunities for me to travel with youth orchestras from Carnegie Hall in New York to Europe to Japan – the rewards are indescribable in hindsight!
In the past few years, Irvine has lost something special. It has lost a place where young people and teachers gather and create music: a youth orchestra which really focuses on performing and touring. The youth orchestras in Irvine I grew up with are no more. And though there are so many wonderful kids with devoted parents willing to do anything to enrich their kids’ education, Irvine lacks the leadership and vision to create a youth orchestra. Until now.
As a teacher and violinist/violist, I truly believe all children are deeply creative and that music can unlock that great potential. It is the task of teachers to engage and explore their students’ talents, for it is this curiosity which drives them to achieve many amazing things. In music, wonderful ideas are exchanged and discussed, providing infinite enjoyment. Playing in an orchestra is an absolute necessity for kids because its musical environment is extremely stimulating. Irvine Young Concert Artists was created in September of 2005 to be all this and more! IYCA focuses each concert and project on our children. For me, a youth orchestra should be more than a place of music education -- it should be a place where bridges are built and differences set aside, a place where kids will happily practice their music with a common goal to create beautiful music, and a place where kids of all ages gather and make new friends.
IYCA was founded in 2005 to serve as a doorway to the many wonderful performing opportunities and community projects in Irvine. It embraces two philosophies in every performance -- “A World Apart, in Music Together!” and “Kids Helping Kids.” As a teacher, I see each of my students grow and change every lesson. I hear what they play and what they say. These kids are our future. They need our encouragement but more importantly, our experience and open-mindedness to develop their sense of confidence in their own ideas. Children look to their parents and teachers for this confidence, and we must provide it by listening to what they want by provided them adequate performance opportunities. Music education is much more than just practicing hard, attending lessons, or finding a demanding teacher. It is a complex blend of moral and emotional support. Irvine Young Concert Artists believes that by featuring concerts where students and teachers sit side by side, we all create the most fertile creative atmosphere possible for learning. This is how IYCA arrived at our philosophy of “A World Apart, in Music Together!”
IYCA’s philosophy of Kids Helping Kids is unique in that children are encouraged to use music to help other children in two ways – in teaching and in performance! IYCA was not created to only be a charity orchestra though we believe in serving all humanitarian causes. IYCA’s Kids Helping Kids Project encourages children to participate, through the medium of music, in order to find solutions for great social causes, simultaneously bringing the city of Irvine a world class youth orchestra. It is IYCA’s mission to have our kids be proud of their own achievements and for the city of Irvine to be proud of its young artists. The IYCA-led Hurricane Katrina Benefit Charity Concerts, organized by IYCA kids to help children who are ill or homeless, is testament to this very philosophy. IYCA faculty facilitated and assisted this student-led project by performing alongside the students.
Unlike other youth orchestras in Orange County which perform only a mere four to six times a year for their parents, Irvine Young Concert Artists embraces a unique philosophy that frequent performances at different places is where all the learning happens. It devotes all of its resources to booking concerts featuring its young members as soloists. IYCA believes in producing the best concerts. Whereas most youth orchestras featuring one soloist the entire year, IYCA believes in featuring several soloists in many concerts each month! It is this “magic” which draws so many wonderful musicians together to create beautiful music. It is these concerts which has inspired Irvine to open so many doors to IYCA for future concerts.
History and tradition, all in one.
Irvine Young Concert Artists is currently in its infancy. Mischa Lakirovich and myself gave it life only a month ago in four benefit concerts. Like an infant, it is full of energy, ideas, and life, searching and wondering, crawling fast. Soon, IYCA will be walking, then running. Word has spread fast in Irvine of this new orchestra where students and teachers perform together and everywhere. As I once explained to an excited concert-goer at the University Synagogue: “We bring the music to the people!”
Irvine Young Concert Artists is the only youth orchestra with a holistic approach to performing and learning. It is the only youth orchestra with the vision that performing here and abroad enriches our lives as well as those listening. It is the only youth orchestra where teachers and students sit side by side and perform together. It is the only youth orchestra with a world-class guest teaching faculty dedicated to teaching music.
Irvine Young Concert Artists has a new home, as of October 2005. Located in the center of Irvine, Irvine Presbyterian Church has opened its doors to us and will house our weekly Saturday morning rehearsals. It is a convenient and practical meeting point for all the kids in Irvine who have no place to perform outside of school music classes. Irvine Young Concert Artists will fill the void left behind by previous youth orchestras in Irvine years ago as it embarks on its inaugural 2005-2006 Season filled with many interesting projects and surprises! No longer will the music-loving and devoted Irvine parents have to drive outside of Irvine to join a youth orchestra: Irvine will soon boast of something entirely new! I myself grew up in Irvine since 1981 and was always engaged in the cultural life of every youth orchestra and now it is time for me to pass this knowledge on to the next generation.
IYCA understands the importance of extracurricular activites in our children’s educational development. As a teacher, I encouage every student to always seek more challenges and projects. Performing music in concerts for charity events and other community related concerts are a wonderful way to develop a musician’s personal growth. Students are invited to help book concerts, build a website, fundraise for tours, and to recruit for new members. In most youth or professional orchestras, these are tasks reserved for adults. In providing challenges such as these for students to tackle, IYCA teaches its members important problem solving abilities, the very quality which most colleges and employers look for. I believe all students have innate talents which can be unlocked through music. Through rehearsing and performing, students will grow into well-rounded individuals as they interact with both younger and older musicians around them.
There is no question that IYCA believes in performing as its primary goal. At every concert, you will see myself, IYCA Executive Director, and my good friend and colleague Artistic Director Mischa Lakirovich playing the violin and viola in the orchestra or conducting. All of the projects set forth above are intended to bring everyone closer together and to help educate the IYCA musicians. It is my sincere belief that IYCA can successfully achieve all these things because both its directors are seasoned violinists and cannot help but bring their experience, energy, and talents to inspire Irvine kids. So when people still wonder what IYCA is, you can now say it is more than just a youth orchestra but a fertile environment where kids can explore their talents through music.
IYCA will be organized as a democratic orchestra where I will make it my priority to have every IYCA musician’s voice heard. Every student in IYCA will be involved in a major role, task, or project in the development of this orchestra as it learns to walk. They will have titles and business cards and they will be taken seriously by prominent members of our community. IYCA is their orchestra and they will speak and work for it with love, respect, and admiration. The inspiration for this organizational concept stems from my Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra teachers who emphasized to me that in their orchestras, every musician has an equal yet important voice in every decision made. Every member of IYCA will be encouraged to explore their talents away from their instruments in addition to their duties as musicians for each concert. Our recording engineers, personnel managers, stage managers, photographers, librarian, publicists (posters, business cards, programs) and ushers will be IYCA’s very own musicians! And like the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, both of which sponsor its own youth orchestras, IYCA can boast of a world-class faculty unlike any in Orange County!
I sincerely hope that IYCA will develop, encourage, and foster the musical ideas necessary to perform at the highest artistic level. Every member of IYCA are encouraged to play as soloists with the orchestra. It is extremely enjoyable for me to play alongside my violin and viola students and even more enjoyable when I play as concertmaster in the orchestra while my own students are the featured stars!
Music has so much meaning to so many and it is something which needs to be kept alive by true spiritual understanding; a real emotional commitment by the performers to let the music live anew; to pass on their new understanding of it to each audience for whom they play. That is what the Irvine Young Concert Artists teachers really stands for. Thank you.
Albert Wu (November 2005)