KELSEYVILLE – On Sunday afternoon, June 14, the 16 young members of the CLPA Youth Orchestra presented its annual concert at Friendship Hall of the Kelseyville Presbyterian Church, before an admiring audience of parents, grandparents, siblings and a smattering of Clear Lake Performing Arts members interested in encouraging classical music in Lake County.

The kids culminated months of tough rehearsals to bring their short program to the public.

According to Tamsen Serena, who serves as co-coordinator of the group, some families were required to make extraordinary sacrifices to see that their budding musicians got to their rehearsals.

"Once they arrived, they were faced with two solid hours of hard work under the direction of Wes Follett" she said.

Follett is both instructor and conductor of the orchestra, which is sponsored in part by Clear Lake Performing Arts.

The program opened with Chopin's "Prelude No 20,” which Follett explained had been written originally for the piano, but subsequently arranged for chamber presentation.

"Hansel and Gretel" the children's fairy tale translated into music by 19th century composer Engelbert Humperdinck (NOT the recent Las Vegas singer) was the next number, followed by the spacey sounds of Emily Bushta and Serena Gelfer's flutes in "Apollo 13" written by contemporary composer James Horner.

The program was not without its problems, however, some of which were caused by recent changes in personnel, according to Andi Skelton, the Youth Education Coordinator for CLPA.

"When key players leave, we often need to revise the seating arrangements, and this can cause problems" she said.

The group sailed through Reinhold Gliere's "Russian Sailor's Dance" and Matt Turner's "Tango Expresivo" with only minor glitches, but on the down-home "Cripple Creek" where the violins shift to fiddle mode, Conductor Follett was forced to call a time out, before regrouping and finishing the piece in fine fashion. In the absence of an upright bass cellists Amanda Bronson, Elliott Serena, Emily Prather and Allen Stuckey did a masterful job of covering for the missing instrument.

One look at the program shows who the musical families in Lake County are.

First is the Mahnke family of Cobb, with three girls in the orchestra, Bethany, Melissa and Michaela. Next are the Rixens of Kelseyville, represented by Dakota and Maeve, while the Crocketts of Lakeport fielded two players – Alice and Charlie – and the Serenas of Cobb, also two – Edison and Ellott.

Others in the orchestra are Clayton Rudiger and Kevin O'Quinn, who both stepped into lead positions in the first violin section, and did masterful jobs, with O'Quinn acting nominally as the orchestra's concertmaster.

Skelton, who also is concert mistress to the Lake County Symphony, said CLPA supports the Youth Orchestra because "These are the young people we hope will eventually fill the chairs left by older, retiring members of the symphony."

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Written by: Connel Murray

Published: 18 June 2009