A Tour Full of High Notes : Youth Orchestra Wins Honors From Europeans

Playing his French horn on the worn wooden floor at Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria, Matt Schwartz was awe-struck.

Two centuries ago, Franz Joseph Haydn conducted in the same concert hall, as court composer.

“There was some power there,” the ninth-grader from Pasadena’s John Muir High School recalled. “I felt like ‘I have to play real good here--Haydn’s out there.’ ”

Schwartz, 15, was touring the haunts of musical greats such as Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms and Strauss with the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra as part of the 18th International Youth and Music Festival in Vienna last month.

The orchestra for seventh- to ninth-graders was established by the Pasadena Symphony Assn. and the Pasadena Unified School District in 1972 to augment school music programs. The ensemble of San Gabriel Valley youths gives six performances every season, including concerts at the Ambassador Auditorium and Disneyland.

Although the 82 musicians were the youngest at the international competition, they came away with the highest prize for an hourlong studio performance broadcast over the Austrian Radio Network. Only eight groups from 30 choirs, bands and orchestras representing about 20 countries at the festival had been selected to perform on the air.

The youths, who returned from their two-week trip July 24, also picked up a special award. They did not fit into any category because theirs was the only junior high school contingent, but the judges thought they deserved something for an outstanding performance, said Craig Northrup, a talent scout for the festival.

“The jury was very impressed because (the orchestra) played music geared to their age level and they played it perfectly,” said Northrup, who selected four ensembles to represent the United States at the festival this year. The event, which Northrup described as “the most prestigious, biggest, longest-running world music festival anywhere,” is sponsored annually by Vienna and the Austrian Ministry of Education and Arts.

He said the festival, which has drawn more than 60,000 youths from high schools, colleges and music conservatories in 43 countries since it was launched in 1972, is intended to “promote world understanding through music the international language.”

In addition to competing, each group was scheduled to perform music reflecting the culture of their respective countries at churches, resorts, castles and parks throughout Austria and Germany.

Concert Was High Point

Many of the young musicians agree the Esterhazy concert was a high point of the tour.

“To play where Haydn conducted just makes you feel really special,” said cellist Manya Shorr, 14.

“Esterhazy is one of the most famous musical landmarks in the world,” Northrup pointed out. “A lot of musicians would give their eyeteeth just to stand on that stage, let alone perform.”

Choirs from England and Japan crammed on stage to join the orchestra in an encore performance of music from the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, “The Sound of Music,” said Cheryl Mead, co-manager of the orchestra. The entire audience stood up and joined hands in a circle, swaying to the familiar strains, she said.

“It was kind of like a joining of countries,” said Shorr, an eighth-grader at Charles Elliot Middle School in Altadena. “Even though they didn’t speak English the music was the same.”

The large orchestra could hardly fit into an ancient church with a high vaulted ceiling in the wine village of Leobersdorf, Austria.

Sound ‘Was Something Else’

“The sound in the church was something else,” Mead said. “When we played the timpani drums, I was sure some of the statues would just crack.”

The group also performed at the Vienna Konzerthaus, home of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and received a standing ovation at the Alpine spa resort city of Badgastein.

“We learned a lot about giving encores, getting offstage gracefully, how European audiences react,” Mead said.

Many orchestra members said the European audiences were warmer and more appreciative.

“You’d say Strauss and that got a round of applause,” said first violinist Gary Hung, 14. “They know more about the music and show more enthusiasm.” The Temple City High School ninth-grader practices three hours daily and aspires to attend the Juilliard School of Music in New York.

“At our concerts (locally) mostly just family and friends would attend,” Schwartz said. “I’d never thought of us as being world class.”