Maestro assists local school orchestras

Members of the Poway Unified School District middle school orchestras will get to fine-tune their craft on Sunday with the help of Jung Ho-Pak, the acclaimed conductor of the Orchestra Nova San Diego.

The string orchestras from Twin Peaks and Bernardo Heights are two of the musical groups that will be taking part in the festival, scheduled from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, March 7 at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts, 15498 Espola Road.
Also taking part in the event will be orchestras from La Jolla Country Day High School and the Intermediate Symphony Orchestra from the San Diego Youth Philharmonic.

The event is open to the public. Admission is free, but donations will be accepted at the door.

Ulli Reiner, the orchestra director at the middle schools, created the festival about 10 years ago, she said in a phone interview, adding that her goal was to give students a chance to perform and be evaluated honestly but in an informal setting.
“I wanted them to have a different perspective than what usually goes on at festivals,” she said, noting that the evaluations are usually written out and read by the orchestra conductors afterward.

“Here, they’re not graded on how well they play or how technically proficient they are,” she added.

Reiner said she soon found the perfect guest in Pak, who has wide experience conducting both professional orchestras and also children. He is currently the musical director of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra and director of orchestras at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan.

In a phone interview, Pak said he enjoys taking part in these master classes, and praised the work that Reiner does in the Poway Unified School District. He said his involvement comes from his belief that music education should be an integral part of a student’s educational experience, not a luxury but a necessity that helps children do well in other subjects.

“This has been a mission of hers to present her students in a form that the parents and the community can understand a little bit more about what we’re doing,” said Pak, who added that what he does with each participating orchestra is provide “a tune-up” often providing tools that will help the young musicians communicate with their conductors and with each other.

“All the hard work takes place in the classroom during the course of the year,” he said. “What I do is I come in and give a perspective that maybe they don’t get from the regular class … and I just try to get them to have as much fun and to be expressive.”

Pak said that although the kids may learn from the experience, those who may benefit more from it might actually be those sitting in the audience, noting that he strives to present the work he’s doing in simple language that is easily understood even by those who are not musically inclined.

“It’s like as if you’re walking into the kitchen and the chef is teaching you how the food is created,” Pak said.

For more information on the performances, contact Reiner at ureiner@powayusd.com or by calling 858-485-4850 ext. 4869 or go to http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/teachers/ureiner.

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Posted by unestidstwern on Mar 3 2010. Filed under Archive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry