Russell Steinberg said he felt like an outsider growing up in Los Angeles. While his friends were involved in the frenzy of popular culture, he alone preferred to find joy in classical music.
Today, the former UCLA music assistant professor and alumnus is the artistic director of the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra.
“I really liked the idea of trying to create a safe place for young people who like classical music, not to feel like they’re aliens, where they can get to know each other,” said Steinberg, who composes and conducts pieces for the orchestra.
Steinberg said the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra provides classical music experience to 130 young musicans of Los Angeles aged 8 to 18. Their next performance is on Sunday at UCLA in Schoenberg Hall.
The theme of the concert is “Exploring a New World,” which Steinberg said was inspired by the orchestra’s new rehearsal space in Encino, and the concert’s featured piece, Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, “From the New World.”
“(Dvorak’s symphony is) amazing and it just goes through so many different human emotions,” said Leea Joo, the 16-year-old principal cellist of the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra. “It takes you on a journey throughout the whole piece.”
Joo said the orchestra has been working hard in rehearsals for four hours every Sunday to convey this journey to the audience. However, Joo said rehearsals are enjoyable because Steinberg has a greater passion for music than anyone she’s seen before.
Other pieces on the program include Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino (Sinfonia)” and Brahms’ “Tragic Overture.” The latter will be conducted by Renate Gregorian, a conducting intern for the orchestra.
Before arriving at this weekend’s concert, the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra underwent a 15-year journey. The orchestra began in 1999 for Jewish students and was later opened up to qualified students from all over Los Angeles. Steinberg said children auditioned from all over the city, and thus it became the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra.
“It’s pretty difficult to find people my own age that are interested and serious about classical music,” said Jaya Nataraj, the 17-year old concertmaster and first chair violinist for the orchestra. “It’s great to have people with common interests.”
In February 2013, by invitation of the Manhattan Concert Productions, the orchestra made its Carnegie Hall debut and filled the famous cathedral-like center with the rhythms of their music.
“The hall is beautiful. I was so in love at first sight,” Joo said. “The reverberations for the sound were amazing and the audiences were great.”
Steinberg said the Carnegie Hall performance was a climatic moment for the group. Since it was the first time the orchestra had performed outside of Los Angeles, many people had expressed misgivings about the cost and practicality of traveling to Carnegie Hall in New York City.
The moment the kids walked on stage, there was a polite applause; however, Steinberg said after the last note on their first overture, the audience went wild.
“Everyone was cheering and when I looked at everyone in the orchestra, I saw how proud they looked,” Steinberg said. “That was a great moment that made me realize that all the hard work was paid off.”
Now the orchestra is preparing for its European tour of Vienna and Prague in June 2015. The idea for the tour stemmed from Steinberg’s dream of playing Haydn’s music in Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria, where Hadyn composed his work. The group will perform with students from a music conservatory in Vienna’s MuTh concert hall.
“I’ve never been to anywhere in Europe actually, so I think it will be great to first of all go there and also to collaborate with another youth orchestra from that area,” Nataraj said.
Luke Santonastaso, a UCLA and Los Angeles Youth Orchestra alumnus, said he experienced first-hand how opportunities to develop skills in the youth orchestra can build a solid musical foundation. He joined the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra in fourth grade as a violinist and pursued the instrument in college.
In addition to the classical skills, the forged friendships were one of the lasting impacts of the orchestra, Santonastaso said.
“I met what would become my very close friends at UCLA. They were coaches of the orchestra,” Santonastaso said. “That was a community involvement (that) brought me a little bit closer to the more advanced generation of musicians.”
Santonastaso said he believes it’s vital to keep classical music alive for the next generations to enjoy, as musicians and spectators.
Nataraj said the concert on Sunday will be a great opportunity for UCLA students to see what’s out there in terms of the music industry and to be exposed to music that they might not normally listen to.
“You don’t need to be a specialist in classical music. This is music that anyone could like because it’s got such beautiful melodies,” Steinberg said. “There is no substitute for hearing live music.”