Youth Orchestras to perform at Weill Hall

Tiffany Wei, principal clarinetist with the Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra

Five Bay Area youth orchestras will gather  at the Green Music Center’s Weill Hall at 3 p.m. Sunday for the fourth annual Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival (BAYOF) Hope  Concert to benefit Bay Area homeless and underserved youth.
Hosted by Hoyt Smith of KDFC Radio, the concert features 400 young musicians from the Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Oakland Youth Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra of Berkeley.

Each orchestra will perform for about 15 minutes. For the encore, 118 select  members of the five orchestras will play together as an  all-star,  Festival Orchestra under the direction of Santa Rosa Youth Orchestra Conductor Richard Loheyde.

For the Festival Orchestra’s selection, Loheyde chose the fourth movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, a piece that helped inspire him to become a conductor when he played in the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra’s string section.

“Mahler’s symphonic works have so much power, passion and emotional impact that instantly galvanizes a profound connection with young musicians,” Loheyde said. “We certainly hope it will be a life-changing experience for these 400 young festival musicians to perform in such an incredible space.”

Other works being  performed include the fourth movement of  Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2, Samuel Barber’s “The School for Scandal,” Aaron Copland’s “El Salon Mexico,” Alexander Borodin’s “Polovtsian Dances” and Christopher Theofinidis’ “Rainbow Body.”

All three of the previous BAYOF Hope concerts have been held at Davies Hall in San Francisco, but organizers wanted to take advantage of the opening of the Green Music Center, the new home of the Santa Rosa Symphony and the Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Tickets are $20 to $60 general, $15 for students under age 17. To reserve, call 546-8742 or go to www.santarosasymphony.com.

Proceeds benefit charitable organizations throughout the Bay Area, including the Committee on the Shelterless of Petaluma and Rohnert Park. In the past three years, the event has raised a total of $65,000 for Bay Area homeless and underserved youth.