Spring Concerts
Prior to the performance, be sure to check out Maestro Eylar's interactive Richard Strauss webpage. Featuring program notes, commentary, photos, videos, questions and answers, and more clickable content, it’s the perfect way to prepare you for the performance. Click here or on the photo for instant access!
Our Spring Concert Series is truly exceptional in a number of ways: The California Youth Symphony senior orchestra has been invited to perform for Music in the Mountains at the Amaral Family Center, Nevada County Fairgrounds, in Grass Valley, CA. This is a wonderful honor and opportunity for the orchestra, and Maestro Eylar has selected his repertoire appropriately. For only the second time in his 29-year tenure as Music Director, Maestro Eylar has chosen to program one of the seminal, titanic works of the late 19th Century: Richard Strauss’s masterpiece Don Quixote. Composed in 1897 for solo cello and massive orchestra, the work has from the beginning always been considered the last word in descriptive orchestral writing, virtuosity, and astonishing orchestral effects. Our cello soloist is Davis You, playing the role of the Don himself, as we follow the knight errant in his various misadventures. Our program also features Catherine Huang, our Young Artist Competition winner, who will perform Rachmaninov’s dazzling Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, as well as Chabrier’s wonderfully evocative España.
Leo Eylar, conductor
Catherine Huang, piano
Davis You, cello
Chabrier: España
Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
(Catherine Huang, soloist)
Strauss: Don Quixote (Davis You, soloist)
Young Artist Competition Winner
Sixteen year old pianist Catherine Huang is a sophomore at Lynbrook High School and studies piano with Professor Hans Boepple. She won first prize and the young jury award at the 2017 Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition and appeared on Kansas Public Radio as the first prize winner of the 2016 International Institute for Young Musicians (IIYM) International Piano Competition.
Special Soloist
Davis You, 16, is a junior at Palo Alto High School. He studies cello with Jonathan Koh and previously studied with Irene Sharp. His awards include first place in the 2016 California ASTA solo competition, first place in the 2017 California Youth Symphony Young Artist Competition, and five invitations to perform in the Junior Bach Festival.
CYS Young Artist Competition
Each spring the California Youth Symphony holds its Young Artist Competition to select soloists for the following season. The Competition is open to pianists and instrumental soloists under age 19. Two young artists will be chosen by a panel of three judges to perform with the CYS Orchestra during the November or March concert series of the following season.
Application form now available!