California Symphony profile picture

California Symphony

"America's Best Symphony"- Readers Digest Magazine

About Me

As founder and Music Director of the California Symphony, Maestro Barry Jekowsky has created one of the West Coast's most exciting and distinctive professional orchestras.
Named "Best of America" by the editors of Reader's Digest Magazine May, 2005), the critically acclaimed Symphony's mission is to perform the full range of music from the orchestral repertoire, with particular emphasis on works by American composers. Since its inception in 1986, the Symphony has included a work by an American composer and featured world-renowned guest artists on every program.
Additionally, the Symphony is passionately committed to providing music education programs to children and adults in the San Francisco East Bay; to cultivating composers through its renowned Young American Composer-in-Residence Program; and for giving extraordinarily talented young performers their first professional concert appearances in the United States. Among those who have gone on to make their marks on the symphonic world are violinist Sarah Chang, cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Helen Huang.
Since 1990, the California Symphony has been the resident professional orchestra of the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek and regularly performs to capacity audiences in the Hofmann Theatre. The California Symphony also performs in the San Ramon and Concord Communities in September, providing a free concert the whole family can enjoy.
In March 1997, the California Symphony received international recognition when it recorded its first compact disc on the Decca/Argo of London label. The CD, Lou Harrison: A Portrait, features Grammy Award-winning vocalist Al Jarreau as the soloist in Lou Harrison's Symphony No. 4 (Last Symphony). The recording has continued to garner critical acclaim and recognition, including being named "Recording of the Month" in the August 1998 issue of Gramophone Magazine.
Reader's Digest chose the California Symphony as the Best Symphony Orchestra in America in its May 2005 issue hailing the Symphony's Young American Composer-in-Residence Program and its focus on young musicians and American composers.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 9/20/2006
Band Website: californiasymphony.org
Band Members: The California Symphony is a professional orchestra of over 100 of the Bay Areas most talented artists musicians whose credits include membership in the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera and Ballet Orchestras, the Berkeley, Oakland, and Santa Rosa Symphonies, as well as other ensembles in the Bay Area.
For the 2006-07 season members are as follows:
Violin
Roy Malan – Concertmaster
Phil Santos – Principal Violin II
Deborah Bellamy
Lili Byers
Andrew Davies
Josepha Fath
Dan Flanagan
Sergi Goldman-Hull
Holly Heilig
Laurien Jones
Kristi Loder Chew
Michelle Maruyama
Kayo Miki
Patricia Miner
Ellen Pesavento
Phil Santos
David Steele
Zhao Wei
Sharon Wood

Viola
Marcel Gemperli, Assistant Principal
Daria D'Andrea
Katy Juneau
Betsy London
Janet Lynch-Gillespie
Catherine Matovich
Elizabeth Prior Runnicles
Yoko Okayasu

Cello
Leighton Fong, Principal
Dawn Foster-Dodson
Julie Feldman
Paul Hale
Robert Hoexter
Leslie Meeks
Elizabeth Struble
Nicole Welch

Bass
Andy Butler
Timothy Spears
Carl Stanley
Michael Taddei
Raymond Vargas
Kristin Zoernig

Flute
Monica Daniel-Barker, Principal
Greer Ellison
Michelle Caimotto

Piccolo
Michelle Caimotto

Oboe
Laura Reynolds, Principal
James Moore

Clarinet
Frank Renk, Principal
Jerome Simas
Clark Fobes

Bassoon
Greg Barber, Principal
Carla Wilson

French Horn
Doug Hull, Principal
Nicky Roosevelt
Meredith Brown

Trumpet
James F. Dooley, Principal
William Harvey

Trombone
Donald W. Benham, Principal
Thomas Hornig
David Ridge

Tuba
Forrest Byram, Principal

Harp
Karen Gottleib, Principal

Keyboard
Marc Shapiro, Principal

Timpani
Andrew C. Lewis, Principal

Percussion
Mark Veregge, Principal
Victor Avdienko
Allen Biggs

Influences: Beethoven, Mozart, Bernstein, Barber, Williams, Shostakovich, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Ives, Theofanidis, Brahms, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and many, many more...
Sounds Like: America's Best Symphony Orchestra!
Record Label: unsigned
Type of Label: None