El Camino Youth Symphony Season Opener Concert

Season Opener Concert
November 2, 2014, 4:00PM
Flint Center at De Anza College
21250 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino

The first highlight of Dr. Cai’s inaugural season is the Season Opener Concert, November 2, at Flint Center in Cupertino. The impressive program will feature Gustav Mahler’s stunning Symphony No. 1 “Titan”, Samuel Barber’s haunting Adagio for Strings, and Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor, Mvt. IV with soloist Cassandra Chum. In its fifty-two seasons, ECYS has never performed a full Mahler symphony, so this will be a very special occasion. The performance will begin at 4pm.

Born in Beijing, Music Director and Conductor Dr. Jindong Cai received his early musical training in China, where he learned to play the violin and the piano. He came to the United States for his graduate studies at the New England Conservatory and the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. In 1989, he was selected to study with famed conductor Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Center, and won the Conducting Fellowship Award at the Aspen Music Festival in 1990 and 1992.

Professor Cai served on the faculties at the Louisiana State University, the University of Arizona, the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, and the University of California at Berkeley. He held assistant conducting positions with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, working closely with conductors Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Erich Kunzel, and Keith Lockhart. Dr. Cai joined the Stanford University faculty in 2004 as the first holder of the Gretchen B. Kimball Director of Orchestral Studies’ Chair and Associate Professor in Music Performance. He is currently the Music Director and Conductor of the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, the Stanford Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Stanford New Ensemble. He is also the Artistic Director of the Stanford Pan-Asian Music Festival, which he founded in 2005.

Soloist Cassandra Chum, age fourteen, is a freshman at Palo Alto High School. She began her cello studies at age six under Sieun Lin and currently studies under Jonathan Koh. This is her seventh year in ECYS and her third year with the Senior Symphony. She has participated in the Junior Bach Festival twice and has won awards in the United States Open Music Competition, CMTANC Music Competition, MTAC VOCE Competition, and MTNA Junior Performance Competition. Last summer, she attended the Sid and Mary Foulger International Music Festival in Utah where she performed with her piano trio. She also had the unique opportunity to learn from amazing faculty, including Julian Hersh. She is also currently a member in one of California Music Preparatory Academy’s cello quartets.

Program

BARBER Adagio for Strings
ELGAR Cello Concerto, Mvt. IV, Cassandra Chum, soloist
MAHLER Symphony No. 1 in D Major

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