Chapman’s House of Tutor

John Koshak--holds some heavy conducting credentials, having studied at Columbia University and the famed Mozarteum in Salzburg. But he decided to make his career primarily teaching young musicians, and he’s never regretted it.

“I just found that I liked working with young people and I liked the academic environment and I liked teaching and I could still conduct,” Koshak said in a recent phone interview from his home in Orange.

“It seemed to me the right kind of choice.”

Koshak will celebrate his 30-year stint as music director of the Orange County Youth Symphony in the usual way--leading a concert Sunday afternoon in Chapman Auditorium at its home, Chapman University in Orange.

Chapman is also home to the Orange County Junior Orchestra, as well as the instrumental-music program and university orchestras he directs.

When he’s not there, he’s often guest conducting and teaching in Europe. He recently returned from leading master classes at the Mozarteum.

All that is a far distance from the small coal-mining town of Portage, in western Pennsylvania, where Koshak was born and where he began taking clarinet lessons.

“The Johnstown Flood happened about 15 minutes from where I grew up,” he said. “I didn’t hear my first live orchestra until I was a senior in high school.”

The experience took, though, and he decided he wanted to conduct.

He studied first at Penn State University, then moved to Salzburg and later New York.

“Then it was a question of deciding whether to go toward education or the professional [performance] world.”

Heavy recruiting from the Bakersfield school district tipped the scales toward education. He moved to that Central California city in 1966 and stayed five years until Chapman beckoned.

Chapman had a fledgling orchestra, consisting mostly of community players. The Orange County Youth Symphony had just been founded in 1970. Koshak’s task was to build both groups and found a chamber symphony.

He succeeded. The Chapman University Symphony now consists primarily of music majors. The Youth Symphony came to be designated the “Official Youth Orchestra of Orange County” by the Orange County Board of Supervisors in 1982.

Koshak has taken both orchestras on tours throughout the United States, Europe and Asia and conducted youth concerts for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County.

“My approach with them or with any of the orchestras is that the learning that takes place is something that is appropriate for everything in life,” he said.

“There’s the discipline that comes through the study of music that I don’t think comes in anything else, particularly at a young age. The first thing is, if that clicks, they have a commitment that’s unusual from the rest of their peers.

“Somebody in sports does that too. But maybe in music you don’t get all the material rewards you do in sports.”

Despite the appeal of popular music, “there’s just always been--and continues to be--a group that’s drawn to the orchestra and classical music,” Koshak said.

This past year, 170 musicians auditioned for the Youth Symphony. He took 90.

“We had close to 30 cellos auditioning for 12 positions. There were going to be 12. I ended up taking 14. We’ll be struggling with the room on stage.”

The Chapman groups tend to be more consistent in membership than the younger group.

“Very seldom does somebody leave. I know who my principal trumpet is going to be, who my concertmaster is going to be. Whereas with the youth orchestra, each of those positions is up for grabs. Basically, one third of the youth orchestra changes every year.”

Given the turnover, “I’m always amazed that the youth orchestra is as good as it is,” he said.

“Yet they seem to have been consistent since the mid-’80s. The top youth orchestra--in the early days--was 1983. It took that long to build it from a young orchestra that played arrangements of things to one doing original material well. Since those early ‘80s, they’ve been a fairly consistent standard.”

The payoff for him in all this is happiness and considerable pride.

“When my orchestra is playing very well, ripping through some passage, they look up and an individual smiles,” Koshak said. “They’re functioning more like pros in terms of technical ability, but they still have the spirit of youth.”

* John Koshak will open his 30th year of conducting the Orange County Youth Symphony with a program of works by Handel, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and others at 4 p.m. Sunday in the Chapman University Auditorium, 1 University Drive, Orange. $6. ($4 for students and seniors.) (714) 997-6914.

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Chris Pasles can be reached at (714) 966-5602 or by e-mail at chris.pasles@latimes.com.