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Diversity. Equity. Inclusion. Talent

The adage “If it’s worth doing, do it well,” was embodied in sound, sensibility, and self-esteem at the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony’s last concert of the 2024-2025 season in downtown Santa Barbara’s historic Lobero Theatre on Sunday, May 25, 2025. Dr. Daniel Gee, Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Westmont College has been focused on imperatives like growing the artistic level of the Youth Symphony during his three plus years as conductor. Considering the continuous turnover of personnel each year as 18-year old’s move on to college, the achievement on May 25 was laudable as well as audible.

Dr. Gee’s no-nonsense programming choices for this last concert of the season were purposeful and edgy, meaty for musicians and audience alike. They were also as risky as programming gets for musicians in their teens. Ravel: Pavane for a Dead Princess (1899-1910); Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 1, first movement, Vivace (1891-1917); and Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88 (1889) - all four movements. In a world presently struggling with discord and disrespect it was satisfying to experience the healing aura of harmony on stage as these young musicians created together, a cohesive exercise in barrier-breaking camaraderie.

Teamwork the goal, a conflation of diverse brains, cultures, and levels of technical prowess into a living artistic organism, was the result. Ephemeral as is all live music performance the task nevertheless was to achieve great beauty in a fleeting moment. The concert reflected an exciting esoteric, patently achieved. No victors, no vanquished, no glory, no shame. Just beauty. What a lesson for young minds on the brink of life decisions!

“If you want to sing out, sing out. If you want to be free, be free!” - Cat Stevens

Dr. Gee’s preparation skills were obvious at once on May 25. Managing over many weekly rehearsals to coax several dozen young and divergent minds from various cultural backgrounds and teenage angst’s to focus as one consciousness on something as amorphous as an artistic endeavor, the great ambition ably achieved.

Performing three classical music masterpieces at a high standard of technical mastery and interpretive finesse, Dr. Gee molded the Youth Symphony into an artwork of beautiful sound; an extraordinary achievement for an ensemble that tops out at age 18 and loses about a third of its personnel every year as seniors graduate and move on.

Symbolism and subtext would be a stretch to expect from this age group, but as an extraordinary sign of Dr. Gee’s trust in his musicians’ maturity, he programmed the delicately orchestrated thus highly exposed and risky Pavane for a Dead Princess by Maurice Ravel as the opening work on the May 25 program. Originally a solo piano piece composed in 1899, Ravel found the tune so popular with the public he orchestrated Pavane pour une infante défunte in 1910. The rest is history.

Dr. Gee, conducting this delicate musical apéritif without stick (excellent expressive decision), chose a straightforward approach to its interpretation - no sighs, no over indulgences. The conductor allowed Ravel’s sublime meditation to breathe and flow at its own pace, and as usual with such a well-known work, the music itself did the transporting.

The famous horn solo that casts such an enchanting spell over the entire piece and is also notoriously exposed, was superbly realized by the orchestra’s principal horn. Woodwind section ensemble playing was cohesive and beautifully in tune. The strings as an ensemble were quietly lush (no mean task), and exact in intonation. A formidable performance of a fragile musical delicacy.

The joy of intellectual and cultural diversity was front and center for the next piece on the program, a poised and beautifully finessed performance by the Santa Barbara Symphony’s 2024 Youth Concerto Competition winner, pianist Tarek Elkurjie. Now studying physics at the University of Toronto, Tarek played violin in the Youth Symphony for two years, studied music theory at the Colburn School of Music for two years, and has studied piano with Santa Barbara’s Lana Bodnar for ten. Physics his passion, focus and methodology attaches to everything Mr. Elkurjie contemplates, including music.

The young physicist/pianist clearly communes easily with diverse minds from worlds other than physics. In this case the intellectual, psychological, and technical complexities of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943). Performing the first movement (Vivace) of the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 1 (yes, Opus 1, the composer was in the same age group as the musicians performing on May 25), Mr. Elkurjie found empathic connection with the composer, and spoke through him to the audience with unique grace. The case for diversity, a much-maligned idea in these times, could not have been more persuasive.

Composed at the age of 17 in 1891-92, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 picked up the troublesome moniker “student work” early on and has not been as significant a part of the international repertoire as his other piano concerti. Nevertheless, it is every bit as mesmerizingly melodic as the others and is also sufficiently technical for the solo instrument. Sussing out the nuanced psychopathy that is the deep soul of Rachmaninov’s music will be for Elkurjie to explore and enjoy further over time, even as he pursues his career in physics. His interpretation was nevertheless, satisfying.

Tarek Elkurjie’s technical ability was not in doubt on May 25. His interpretation of the first movement Vivace captured Rachmaninov’s pensive romanticism with a delicacy of execution that worked well, though projection into the hall could have been more vibrant. The Youth Symphony enjoyed nice brass ensemble playing in the crucial opening of the movement, executed with confidence and nice balance. The strings managed Rachmaninov’s lush orchestrations, so crucial to the ebb and flow of the movement, with perfect ensouciance. A very good performance all round.   

The pièce de résistance for the 2024-2025 Santa Barbara Youth Symphony season was without doubt a creditably solid, beautifully shaped, marvelously balanced, incredibly taxing but altogether exciting, high-energy performance of the entire Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88 by Antonin Dvořák. A jaundiced search for veracity in every detail and nuance of the performance would be rutting about the forest’s floor for truffles while missing entirely, the massive undulating musical canopy above. The Youth Symphony, under professional guidance, found the composer’s heartbeat.   

Perhaps the YS musicians were inspired by interpretations of the Dvořák most must have seen and heard a few weeks earlier during concerts by the Santa Barbara Symphony with conductor Nir Kabaretti. The challenge of learning all four movements clearly represented a season ’24-’25 goal set by conductor Daniel Gee and embraced fully by the musicians.

As a result of intense rehearsals, coached sectionals, and Dr. Gee’s conducting leadership, an entirely creditable performance, high in energy and ensemble cohesion, was the result. Intonation was excellent throughout all four movements, and Dr. Gee did not compromise on tempi. Lots of exposed sectional playing came off well. Low brass and tricky high fiddle passagework sounded confident. The first movement Allegro con brio for example, was solidly beautiful, a wonderful job.

Tricky bits like the opening of the third movement Allegretto grazioso - Molto vivace came off well because Dr. Gee let nothing slip his attention. The last movement Allegro ma non troppo is a mine field of potential troubles, from its daring and nervously exposed trumpet fanfare opening, to the amazingly tough flute solo passagework and other woodwind sectional dangers during treacherously fast ensemble sections. Gee’s cues clear, the big brass moments came off without a hitch, and the final coda was what it needed to be - fast and thrilling. A beautiful concert from start to finish.

Daniel Kepl | performingartsreview.net

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