MUSIC AND DANCE / Chris Pasles : New World Symphony Hits Right Note for Players

Cellist Peter Steffens was out of school, playing in two orchestras but feeling that he “was not making progress.”

French horn player Paul Loredo left an orchestra because he felt he “had to move on.”

Flutist Laurie Baefsky said she was “getting into the free-lance rut.”

Violinist Navroj Mehta--a cousin of conductor Zubin Mehta--simply was “ready to leave school.”

These are four of the young artists who found the ideal answer to their disparate predicaments in the New World Symphony--an advanced training orchestra created in 1987 in Miami under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.

Each will be heard on the first chamber music program at UC Irvine on Monday, the first installment of the orchestra’s four-week local residency sponsored by the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the Orange County Philharmonic Society and UCI.

“I’d been out of school a few years, playing in two orchestras--the Madison Symphony and the Madison Chamber Orchestra--and taking auditions for professional symphonies. But I felt I was not making progress,” cellist Steffens, 28, said in a recent phone interview from Madison, Wis.

“I needed more training, and this was a great opportunity for me to gain that experience. . . .

“I never went to a conservatory so I never had that access to a real community of professional musicians. And it’s good for me, just having all these excellent musicians. . . .

“There isn’t that competitive feeling that you get in other places. (The founders) are trying to encourage friendship and, as they say, a community of musicians. It seems like it’s working so far.”

Horn player Loredo, from Los Angeles, held a position with the Honolulu Symphony but returned to Southern California to further his career. “It’s just a matter of growing,” Loredo, 27, said by phone.

“I achieved what I went to Honolulu to achieve, then felt I had to come back and move on. I feel this orchestra will open a lot of doors and give me a lot of orchestral experience I couldn’t get in Honolulu.”

For Loredo, the chance to work with conductor Tilson Thomas was “one of the main reasons” he went to Miami when the orchestra was founded.

“I made certain sacrifices,” he said. “I am married, but I didn’t go with my wife to Miami--it meant that much to me to go there and play under his direction.

“Michael relates to the orchestra. He doesn’t just wave his arms around. He takes time with the orchestra to explain musical ideas and phrases. . . . He takes music apart and puts it back together in a way that is understandable. He puts so much of himself into it. . . .

“You couldn’t get this kind of experience anywhere--in this country or anywhere. To me, it’s invaluable.”

For violinist Mehta, the chance to join the orchestra “came at the right time.”

“I was ready to leave school,” Mehta, 25, said in a phone interview from New York.

“The high point started immediately. It was a very different world than what I had at (the Juilliard School of Music). We lived together, we ate together, we were making music together. We would walk home together after rehearsal and talk about what we could fix. . . .

“I would say it’s done more for me than I would have imagined it would have. . . . It has an effect coming right out of school, loosening me up. Michael is nurturing that way.

“This is important. The New World Symphony is important, particularly in this country. . . . It’s like normalizing your development in an art.”

Flutist Baefsky, a native of Los Angeles, felt that she was “kind of getting stuck in the Los Angeles free-lance scene.

“I was working, playing classical music in a restaurant, a lot of casual jobs, weddings, just to survive. You have to. I was getting a little discouraged with things,” Baefsky, 25, said by phone.

“The New World Symphony allowed me to stop all the peripheral music-making I had been doing and concentrate only on very high-level playing--to once again center my goals on becoming an orchestral flutist as opposed to a free-lance artist. . . . It was perfect, ideal for me.

“The whole program is set up to get you a job in an orchestra. They really push you to get auditions. They allow you time off to audition. It really is to bridge the gap between university or conservatory education and getting a job,” Baefsky said.

“As a result, I did win an audition (with the Virginia Symphony in Norfolk, Va.). At this point I don’t know what to do. They’re under contract negotiations. I don’t know. . . . But I know that without the experience in New World Symphony, I wouldn’t have come close to getting that job.”

Michael Tilson Thomas, piano, and Ensembles from the New World Symphony will play music by Mozart, Mahler, Strauss and Poulenc at 8 p.m. on Monday at Fine Arts Village Theatre at UC Irvine. Tickets are $9. (Tickets for a three-concert chamber music series are $29.) For further information, call (714) 642-8232.