Central California Youth Symphony
Sheldon Schlesinger, director
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
1:00pm Concert
Regents Hall
275 Oxford Street
London W1C 2DJ (map)
Free admission
Program scheduled to include
Highlights from West Side Story — Leonard Bernstein
Highlights from Porgy and Bess — George Gershwin
Pirates of the Caribbean — Klaus Badel
Selections from The Phantom of the Opera — Andrew Lloyd-Webber
About the artists…
The Central California Youth Symphony is set in the geographical state center of Fresno, California. The youth symphony was founded in 1998 after the Hoover High School tour to Italy. While many of the students do attend Hoover High in Fresno, several of the students who participate in the youth symphony now attend college in Fresno and are former students of Hoover High School. The youth symphony has performed several concerts in the Fresno area and plans to play an international tour every other year. This is the seventh international tour for the Central California Youth Symphony including tours to Austria and the Czech Republic (in 2000), China (in 2002), Spain and Portugal (in 2004), France and Belgium (in 2006), Italy (in 2008), and Austria and Germany (in 2010).
Sheldon Schlesinger grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended Mills High School in Milbrae. As a member of the California Youth Symphony, from 1965 – 1969, he attended tours to Mexico, Australia, Switzerland, and Czechoslovakia (1971). He attended the University of California, Santa Barbara and received his BA in music and history. He taught in Bakersfield from 1973 – 1978. He has taught music in Fresno since 1978 and has been orchestra director at Hoover High School in Fresno since 1983. Mr. Schlesinger plays double bass professionally with orchestras in Fresno and throughout Central California. Mr. Schlesinger is the assistant director at the Pacific Summer Music Institute at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California (1975 – 2000)
Mr. Schlesinger started the Central California Youth Symphony in April 1998 after the Hoover High School Orchestra tour to Italy. The goal is to give international musical travel experiences to students throughout Central California. This is the seventh international tour for the Central California Youth Symphony including tours to Austria, the Czech Republic, China, Spain and Portugal, France and Belgium, Italy, and Germany.
