The fascinating history of the youth orchestra in Santa Cruz dates back to the founding of a county school summer music camp from 1965 to 1966. Founders of this program included Norman Masonson, James Eachus, Ken Larson, Hayden Dryden, and Craig Johnson. This quaint summer music camp led to the formation of the Santa Cruz County Youth Symphony (SCCYS) for its first season from 1966-67. Little did the original founders know the impact this organization would have on the future of youth classical music education and the number of young lives this music would ultimately touch. SCCYS was organized with cooperation from the County Office of Education as a separate nonprofit organization from the Santa Cruz Symphony, founded seven years prior. Since its founding, the Youth Symphony has provided an amazing opportunity for young local musicians to excel and grow musically. Many former SCCYS members have gone on to careers in professional music. Norman Masonson, often credited as being the “founder” of SCCYS, was its first conductor. Subsequent conductors included Vincent Gomez, Don Adkins, Murray Walker, John Larry Granger, and Nathaniel Berman. Don Adkins was conductor of SCCYS between 1983 and 1987. Mr. Adkins was on the faculty at Bethany College until it closed in 2011. Prior to Mr. Adkins, Vincent Gomez led SCCYS. Mr. Gomez also conducted both orchestral and choral groups while on faculty at Cabrillo College. From 1987 to 1993, Murray Walker conducted SCCYS. Mr. Walker currently directs the music program at Cavalry Episcopal Church in Santa Cruz.
From the perspective of conductor Adkins, SCCYS enjoyed much larger membership in the earlier years prior to the 1980s because many string players were drawn from the high school orchestras including the Aptos, Harbor High School, and Santa Cruz High School orchestras. In the late ’70s, with the passing of Prop 13 and the elimination of funds for many of the public school string programs, it became more challenging to recruit new members to many youth orchestras.
During Don Adkins tenure as conductor, a series of special concerts highlighted the 1986–87 season which was the SCCYS’s 20th Anniversary Season. The orchestra debuted its first commissioned work, The Road to Damascus, by Richard Freeman-Toole. This season also featured an alumni concert drawing upon players invited from the previous twenty years. This collaboration of current and former SCCYS players, some of whom were now well into their 30s, resulted in a memorable performance conducted by orchestra founder Mr. Masonson himself. One of the pieces featured during this hallmark concert was Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony.
John Larry Granger began conducting the Santa Cruz County Youth Symphony in the 1993-94 season and remained its leader for an unprecedented 18 years until 2011. Mr. Granger initiated several collaborative projects for SCCYS. When asked to reflect on his years with SCCYS, Mr. Granger states he was “… particularly proud of the combined concerts we did each year with the Youth Music Monterey Orchestra. Both orchestras were about the same size, but together we could play some major full symphonic literature that neither orchestra could have performed on its own. Also, of course, the side by side week with the Santa Cruz Symphony always proved to be such a worthwhile educational experience.” Another special concert Mr. Granger recalled featured alumnus Aaron Miller as piano soloist with the orchestra in Rhapsody in Blue and in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. If you have had school-aged children in the last two decades in Santa Cruz County, they have likely been on a school field trip and enjoyed orchestral music thanks to the tireless efforts of Mr. Granger. About 4,000 students/teachers per year participate in these entertaining and educational concerts, and often guest artists such as dancers, acrobats, etc. complement the musicians and enrich the overall experience. In March 2011, SCCYS presented a “Tribute to John Larry Granger” during its joint concert with the Santa Cruz Symphony, commemorating Mr. Granger’s eighteen years with SCCYS.
One of the symphony’s charter players, Ben Williams, who later started a local roofing business, has been a continued supporter of the Youth Symphony throughout the years. He was remembered as having ridden his bicycle religiously to every rehearsal. “I could never repay the Youth Symphony,” said Williams in an interview for a local paper back in 2004. “It taught me what hard work can achieve and the wonderful feeling of accomplishment of seeing things through.” He added, “Youth Symphony gave me a base that I couldn’t get anywhere else, at school or at home.” One of Williams’ fond memories of his six years playing percussion was of winning the perfect attendance award. He also later sponsored such an award for the organization. “Suit up and show up,” Mr. Williams said. “It’s a basic lesson I’m proud to help kids learn.”
The repertoire of SCCYS, determined by the conductor, in any given season draws on different eras of musical composition from the early Baroque period all the way through the Contemporary period. Such variety exists in the rich history of music and composition that virtually any emotion or experience can be evoked by selection of just the right piece. One example was the concert from May 2002, “An All American Tribute in Honor of Mom,” performed in collaboration with Youth Orchestra of Monterey County in which pieces included Leonard Bernstein’s Candide and Gershwin’s An American in Paris. Next, consider a tour through the world, with the November 2006 concert, “Vacation Destinations,” featuring New York, Paris, Madrid with works by Brahms, Bizet, Paul Dukas, and Rimsky-Korsakov. Countless other imaginatively-themed concerts abound throughout the history of SCCYS, just a few to include: “Rhythm and Romance,” “Chills and Thrills,” “Symphonic Spooktacular,”“Russian Rhapsodies,” “Baroque and In Love,” and “A Pastoral Journey.” During the fall concert in 2004, a costume parade featured contestants marching across the stage, eerily accompanied by the orchestra playing Camille Saint-Saens’ Danse Macabre.
The vast majority of all music performed in the history of SCCYS has been the original orchestral work rather than arrangements, this goal attributable to the consistently high level of musicianship of members of the orchestra. Conductors are at liberty to tailor their season to feature certain sections or soloists to “show off” these particularly talented players, and virtually every instrument and section has been featured at some point in the history of SCCYS.
One of grandest celebrations in the history of SCCYS occurred in April 2006 at the Bargetto Winery in Soquel, commemorating the 40th Anniversary Celebration of SCCYS. Four of the founding organizers were honored then: Norman Masonson, James Eachus, Ken Larson, and Hayden Dryden. Past music directors were also honored: Norman Masonson, Don Adkins, and Murray Walker. Other key SCCYS personnel honored included Annette Longuevan and Carol Panofsky, who were symphony managers, Ben Williams, charter member and donor mentioned above, Sue Laughlin, librarian, and many others. On that April 29, then SCCYS Board President Donald Betterley presented a certificate to founder Norman Masonson, reading as follows, “We wish to honor your contributions and commitment to our many young musicians and offer our very special thank you for helping to make this such a successful youth symphony.”
In 2011 Nathaniel Berman took over leadership as music director of the Santa Cruz County Youth Symphony and continued in this role for 15 years. Mr. Berman is a prominent conductor of orchestras as well as choirs around the San Francisco Bay Area and brought new energy, humor, and excitement to this current generation of fine young musicians in Santa Cruz County. In his own words, “What I love about the Youth Symphony experience is that it provides the participants with a setting that allows them to fully stretch and engage all facets of this musical identity.”