A dazzling performance by fledgling musicians

Is it just an illusion, or are our fledgling classical musicians getting better at a younger age? That was the impression left by the Debut Orchestra’s concert Sunday afternoon at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, part of the 48th season of the Young Musicians Foundation.

Front and center were dazzling violinist Yumi Man -- all of 15 -- admirably tackling the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, and a sure-handed and confident conductor, Joana Carneiro, a relative veteran at 26, in her first regular-season performance with the training orchestra since being named its conductor for the next three years.

A generally refined orchestral sound triggered a particular double-take sensation; it’s difficult to reconcile the sight of such young musicians onstage (ages 14 to 25) and an orchestral sound so maturely articulated -- a happy cognitive dissonance.

Man qualifies as a violinist to watch. On the Mendelssohn, she showed an assured voice, whose tonal poise and technical aplomb were evident from the opening melodic statement through the first movement’s luminous cadenza to the finale’s fervent obstacle course.

Sunday’s program was varied enough to show off the ensemble’s range and Carneiro’s flexibility and control. She moved the players with ease from the pert gentility of Mozart’s Symphony No. 32 in G, K. 318, to the intriguing incidental theater music of Gabriel Faure’s “Pelleas et Melisande” Suite, Opus 80 and, finally, Zoltan Kodaly’s spicy “Galanta Dances.”

The Debut Orchestra’s concert offered good music-making by any standard, and also reassurance. Whatever the fate of the classical music infrastructure, the coming generation of players is ready, able and artful.