Applause Is Music to Budding Orchestra’s Ears

“I think we got this thing off the ground!” music director James Domine exclaimed after the West Valley Symphony Orchestra’s premier performance Saturday night. Domine, looking happy and a little relieved, stood backstage between the school auditorium’s thick green curtains just in front of the door marked “Boys.”

Smiling orchestra members packed up their instruments from the small stage of the Sutter Junior High School Auditorium in Canoga Park and congratulated each other on a performance well done.

Cynthia Domine, string manager and James’ wife of six months, said she was still “in shock” from the enthusiastic response to the free performance: “I think now we have a future. That is the main thing.”

Much of the couple’s time recently has been spent organizing this first season for the symphony. The Domines dream of the group one day playing in a grander place. For now though, the school auditorium, with its green and white paint, cement and tile floors, and an occasional initial carved on the hardwood seats, will have to do.

Last-Minute Doubts

Only hours before the performance there were still some doubts about the debut.

During the final rehearsal, crucial details remained to be worked out. What was the best way for three men to push a piano smoothly on and off the small stage? How would they maneuver 50 straight-backed schoolroom chairs around on a wood floor as quietly as possible?

Domine admonished his musicians not to play on the rests. “We’ve told everyone we are professionals. Professionals don’t play on a rest!” he chided the orchestra immediately after they had done just that.

“I’m not that bad a guy, we’re all friends here. But I have to maintain standards.”

Then there was the wardrobe. While his colleagues wore a hodgepodge of long black dresses, skirts, mostly-matching tuxedos and suits, viola player Lee Graham, clad in jeans and a T-shirt, looked nervously at his watch. “Am I going to have time to change?” he asked.

Even though some of the 50 orchestra members had yet to arrive, and the auditorium was only partially filled, Domine remained calm.

Many of the first to arrive were friends and spouses of the orchestra members, but others, like Mike Marnell, an eighth-grader at Sutter, showed up early and just listened to the rehearsal. He plays the violin in the school’s orchestra, and hopes someday to be on the stage himself.

Among the approximately 350 who finally arrived was Herbert Holland, 68, of Van Nuys.

Appreciative Fan

“I am a music lover,” Holland said. “I am happy to see the Valley is going to have its own symphony orchestra. I’ve had to go downtown to hear this kind of music.”