Sounds of Success : Santa Monica High Orchestra Director Leads Program to International Acclaim

The school’s hotshot junior varsity wrestler prefers to play Bach on the viola. A baseball player belts out a mean Mozart on the clarinet. And one of the campus eccentrics, known as “the guy with the blue hair,” gives a brilliant performance on the bass.

Welcome to Santa Monica High School, where the coolest clique on campus is the school’s symphony orchestra.

While music programs are waning at other public schools, Santa Monica’s orchestra has secured an international reputation for excellence by outplaying some of the best youth orchestras in the world.

The group has played in Spain and in Vienna, where it took first place in the International Youth and Music Festival in 1992. It has been invited to play Carnegie Hall. And Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen is singing the students’ praises.

At the center of their musical success, the students say, is Jeff Edmons, the school’s energetic--and demanding--orchestra director.

Five years ago, before Edmons, 30, joined the staff, there were only 80 students in two orchestras. Now there are more than 240 youths participating in five orchestras, including 96 students in the prestigious symphony orchestra.

“He wants us to exceed what people expect us to play,” said Allison Inouye, 17, a violist who will attend the Manhattan School of Music next year. “He never lets up.”

And as the students grow as musicians, they gain self-confidence while learning the importance of discipline and dedication. Edmons believes the music touches the students at the deepest level, giving them an appreciation of the arts and an outlet for self-expression.

“Young people who grow up with music and experience culture and the arts in their lives in turn have an enhanced view of the world around them,” said Edmons, who learned to play the violin when he was a boy and took up conducting when he was a teen-ager.

“They learn about their creative side,” he said. “They learn about the importance of preserving the very aspects of life that make us human: the ability to touch and reach the emotions and the ability to create.”

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But it is not always easy getting the students to put aside the pressures of adolescence to focus on their creative power, Edmons said.

“As a teacher, you are always faced with the fact that things in their daily lives change,” Edmons said. “Maintaining the focus and being able to free their minds so that they can concentrate on music, no matter what else is going on in their lives, is a challenge.

“It’s important to get them to understand what they are doing today is directly related to their success three months from now.”

Shortly before their year-end concert earlier this month, Edmons used the symphony orchestra’s hourlong class period to lead the group through Russian composer Vasili Kalinnikov’s richly textured Symphony No. 2.

After one practice run, Edmons told the group: “The color of the sound needs to be darker. You need to get out of the music, out of what’s on the page and into what it’s saying. That’s the next step.”

The students nodded in agreement.

At Edmons’ cue, the group started again. Standing on the podium, the conductor moved his arms outward and upward, slicing and chopping the air. Sweat dripped from his brow. This time the musicians’ delivery was smoother. They sounded more like seasoned professionals than students.

Despite the occasional teen-age distractions, this is a determined group. It is common for students to hire private music instructors to keep up with their classmates. Edmons figures he will have about 30 openings in the symphony orchestra next year. At least 150 students will vie for those spots.

Those who are good enough to get in are usually guaranteed a chance to travel. (If the group can raise enough money, it will attend music festivals in Spain, Austria and Germany next year.) And, oh yes, there are the bragging rights.

“I tried for three years to get in,” said Audrey Cannon, a 17-year-old senior, who plays the clarinet. “That’s all you hear about at Santa Monica High School: symphony orchestra.”

It wasn’t always this way. The program struggled for years because of a lack of interest. Edmons, who had been working with a youth orchestra in Ohio, put in for the job in 1990, after his wife was transferred to Los Angeles with AT&T.;

Dynamic and determined, Edmons quickly built the program--and its reputation. One youth came all the way from Germany this year, after applying as an exchange student, to play French horn in the symphony orchestra.

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In addition to the symphony orchestra, Edmons also directs the concert orchestra, the beginning string orchestra, the string orchestra and the chamber orchestra, which includes 20 of the best string players in the symphony orchestra. Plus, he’s the director of orchestras at Loyola Marymount University.

Edmons figures there will be close to 275 students involved in Santa Monica’s orchestra program by next year, 35 more than this year.

But it’s not just about numbers, school Principal Sylvia Rousseau said.

“There is still that quality, that commitment,” Rousseau said. “That’s what is so amazing.”

Several years ago, Santa Monica High became the first public high school to take first place in the International Youth and Music Festival in Vienna. In fact, the group was the only U.S. high school symphony orchestra ever invited.

“I wanted to create in a public school a place where students could experience music on a high level on a daily basis,” Edmons said. “The goal is always excellence. The students really respond to that.”

Recently, the musicians performed under the direction of Salonen at a fund-raiser, delivering a commanding rendition of Ravel’s “Bolero.” The Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor lauded Santa Monica’s orchestra program as “amazing.”

The group transcends all cultural and economic lines--driven simply by talent and dedication. Nerds and jocks come together with the common bond of music. Many of the students go on to study at major conservatories, with hopes of becoming professional players. Others join the group because they simply want to learn about music.

“I love my viola,” said Mike Schoellhammer, a 17-year-old champion wrestler and symphony orchestra member. “It’s a part of me. I like playing the bombastic kinds of things. And, oh sure, I like the mellow stuff too.”

Added violin player Evelyn Wang, 17: “Even though I know I’m not going to major in music [in college], it will always be a part of me because I was able to be in this group. I will always remember it as one of the best experiences of my life.”