High School Orchestra Plays Its Way to Victory in Vienna : Young Musicians Take First in International Competition

The players in the Santa Monica High School orchestra left for Europe early this month just feeling lucky to be invited to a prestigious youth music festival--and ended up winning first place.

The 85-member orchestra was one of four groups from North America to take part in the International Youth and Music Festival in Vienna. For two decades, the festival has brought youth choirs, orchestras and bands from around the world to the city that has been home to many great composers.

The Santa Monica students outplayed 11 youth orchestras from Israel to England to win the title of “best symphony orchestra.”

In addition, a chamber group of the orchestra’s best string players won special recognition for excellence.

“It was a really great surprise,” said orchestra conductor Jeff Edmons. “It couldn’t have been more exciting.”

On Monday, parents and friends greeted the jet-lagged travelers at Los Angeles International Airport with hugs and shouts of congratulations. The students’ weary faces lit up upon seeing the crowd of about 50 people toting banners, balloons and bouquets of flowers.

“I missed you,” said trombonist Bill Alexan der, 15, as he embraced his mother.

“These kids were tired before they left,” said Donna Olsen as she waited for her son, Anthony Rydbeck, a trumpet player.

It has been a whirlwind of activity since spring, 1991, when a talent scout for the festival invited the Santa Monica High orchestra to what is billed as the world’s most prestigious youth music festival.

Most families were able to afford half of the $2,000 cost of a two-week trip to Vienna and other European cities, so parents set about raising the rest, about $100,000, said May Wong, who led fund-raising efforts.

Donations poured in from the city of Santa Monica ($10,000), local businesses, community organizations and individuals.

Students raised money by staging Christmastime “play-a-thons” in which they collected donations and kept music going continuously at Santa Monica Place and on Third Street Promenade. They also performed at local weddings and for community groups.

The entourage that left for Europe on July 5 consisted of 83 students, four recent graduates (two of whom played with the orchestra), 10 parents, two teachers and Principal Nardy Samuels.

The orchestra performed in Santa Monica’s sister city of Hamm, Germany, before touring Heidelberg and several medieval villages in Bavaria. The tour also included stops in Munich and Salzburg. Along the way, the travelers slept in two-star hotels, castles and dormitories.

For co-principal flutist Diana Liem, the landscape with its ancient buildings and cobblestone roads “made what you read in history books come alive.”

The International Youth and Music Festival is run by the nonprofit Assn. for International Cultural Exchange and is sponsored by the city of Vienna and the Austrian Ministry of Education and Arts.

The competition started July 11, when the orchestra joined more than 30 musical groups for the opening concert of the festival, held at the Austria Center.

Judges ranked the groups over the next three days of competition. The Santa Monica orchestra was one of two selected to go on to the final round and to play at a matinee concert featuring the winners. The chamber orchestra was also one of two chosen to play in the matinee.

On July 16, the judges declared the Santa Monica group the winner--the first regular public high school orchestra in the world to achieve such distinction. Conductor Edmons said that most of the orchestras at the festival consisted of the finest musicians in a city or region, or represented a magnet school specializing in music.

Part of the prize was the opportunity to play once more: The Santa Monica musicians closed the final concert of the festival with a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, keenly aware that they were in the city where it was written.

They wore black dresses or tuxedos with bow-ties and were led by guest conductor Bernard Keefe, a noted conductor from London. The audience of more than 3,000 people--in the same hall used by the Vienna Philharmonic--gave them a standing ovation.

“All our hard work paid off,” flutist Liem said. “We went over there wanting to be able to hold our heads high. Winning was icing on the cake.”

The victory had its flip side too. Groups eliminated from the competition went sightseeing, whereas the Santa Monica students rehearsed and performed.

Parent Lupe Aguirre spoke with her daughter, Caroline, the night before the final competition.

“She was happy but worried,” Aguirre said. “If they won, they were going to play in front of so many people.”

But complaints were small compared to the glory, and the group did manage to squeeze in visits to Innsbruck and Strasbourg afterward.

“The focus wasn’t sightseeing,” Alexander said. “My favorite part was playing the music and feeling it.”

Alexander said he was especially proud that a U.S. orchestra won, despite a common perception that European orchestras are better at performing music by European composers. “It feels like we had our Olympics over there, and we brought back the gold medal.”