Jazz Vocalist Also Projects Intelligence and Wit

JAZZ SONG IN FLIGHT: Jazz vocalist Debby Yeager, a smart and tasteful interpreter of song from Orange County, has become something of a local favorite who shows up periodically at 66 California. She is a crowd-pleaser who also brings intelligence and wit to the musical mix.

She was missing in action for a spell. After releasing a fine 1996 recording “Mood Swings,” with cameos from noted singer Bob Dorough--in a duet on his classic tune, “Nothing Like You”--she fell into something of a psychological tailspin, recalling and working through childhood abuses.

After a few musically idle years, and some legal wrangling, she reemerged last year. She is now working on two new recordings (including one titled “Psychology of Jazz”), and a book called “Stolen Moments.”

Catch Yeager in the daylight Sunday at “Taste of Camarillo,” a charity event at the Camarillo Ranch House.

PURELY ACADEMIC . . . NOT! Come summertime, one of the pleasant cultural oddities in these parts appears most Saturday nights on the Lobero Theater stage. There, the Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra fills the stage with its student musicians, many barely out of their teens, some still working on it. Noted conductors, including British maestro Jeffrey Tate this week, come to lead and teach.

Under these circumstances audiences could reasonably expect a listening experience qualified by the tender age of the players. Instead, they get some of the best orchestral music-making around. These students come to town from far and wide, and are generally already on their way to well-matriculated classical music careers.

They benefit from the celebrated pedagogy the academy offers. We, the public, benefit from hearing polished, professional-sounding young musicians on the way up.

On these orchestral concerts, the musical program tends to be an engagingly varied one, as well. Three weeks ago the orchestra tackled Stravinsky’s thorny modernist masterpiece, “Rite of Spring.” Two weeks ago the fare was more oft-trodden, but played with an inspiring zeal.

Hearing Beethoven’s summery, neoclassical Eighth Symphony and the tune-filled vehicle of Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique” symphony was almost purely pleasurable.

Guest conductor Peter Oundjian coaxed his charges into a sweetly nostalgic character--with apt precision gearing--for Beethoven’s penultimate symphony.

Although its firepower has no doubt been diluted through overexposure, Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique” comes alive when performed live. There were minor ruffles and wrinkles in the sonic fabric, but no matter--the orchestra neatly captured the work’s melodic and romantic luster.

They seemed to understand that this is a big, swooning opus, from the second movement’s loping non-waltz, odd in its 5/4 meter, to the bright, martial thrust of the third movement (a virtual military anthem, a musical corollary to “bring on the cavalry!”). The last movement’s heroic lament closes on a literal low note, from the low strings.

At this ensemble’s best, which is most of the time, we close our eyes and awareness of age or student status gets washed away in a wave of luscious orchestral sound.

On Saturday night, perennial visitor Tate will guide the gifted youngsters through a program of Delius, Elgar, and Sibelius. As part of a Tuesday chamber music series, next week’s program includes pianist Jerome Lowenthal playing Lizst, an ensemble playing Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll” and a Brahms trio.

DETAILS

Debby Yeager at “Taste of Camarillo,” Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. at Camarillo Ranch House, 3771 Mission Oaks Blvd. Tickets are $45 in advance, $50 at the gate; 482-5893.

Jeffrey Tate, conducting the Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra, on Saturday, 8 p.m., Lobero Theatre, 33 W. Canon Perdido, Santa Barbara. Tickets are $25; 963-0761: 963-0761. Web site: www.musicacademy.org.

Josef Woodard can be reached by e-mail at joeinfo@aol.com