Over the next several weeks, school children in the Auburn area will get the opportunity to hear live classical music performed by a mini-orchestra of professional musicians.

“Symphony goes to School” is an Auburn Symphony program that brings in musicians from not only the symphony here but also the Davis and Sacramento areas. They will tour 11 schools in the coming weeks, performing 16 concerts for children.

Along with the music is an educational program led by Harriet Kroot, who walks students through the different parts of an orchestra and provides the history of the pieces and their composers. The musicians demonstrate what their instruments do, including playing scales, and students are challenged to find the rhythm in each piece and pay attention to what each section of musicians does during the piece.

Symphony goes to School committee member Audrey Mueller explained that a major goal of the program is “to remove the mystique of instruments and classical music for children.”

That includes time at the end of the concert during which the students can talk one-on-one with the musicians about their instruments and experience. Violinist David Thorp, plays “Pop goes the Weasel” while having a student pluck the correct string to make the “pop” sound. The fun activity at the same time demonstrates pizzicato, a playing technique.

“So many schools don’t have programs for kids to play,” said cellist Alan Clark. Just last week, he said, a student approached him at the end of the concert to ask how she could learn to play the cello. Before the week was out, the group had found a private teacher and instrument for her.

At Wednesday’s performance at Skyridge Elementary School, the kindergarten-through-third-grade audience members were surprised to know they already knew a classical piece written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, “Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman,” or “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

They also heard Ludwig von Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, during which conductor Larry Tyrell invited the crowd to join in making the easily recognizable first four notes. The familiar pieces were balanced with waltzes and polkas, and ended with Henry Mancini’s “Pink Panther,” which got the audience snapping their fingers to the beat.

Audience members Jazmine Wright, Allisyn Marks and Natalie McKnight agreed that “Pink Panther” was their favorite song.

“It made your heart thump!” Jazmin said.

The musicians are paid a stipend for their time, which is covered by the schools and a matching contribution from the symphony. Teachers are given a music resource guide beforehand that includes a guide to the composers, information about the orchestra instruments and a CD of classical music to play in the classroom. Mueller said some parents and grandparents have felt the program is so important that they donated the entire amount to their children’s schools. Those major donations mean a lot in times when music funding has been greatly reduced if not cut completely at schools across the nation.

“It’s good exposure for the kids,” said Skyridge fifth-grade teacher John Garcia. “A lot of the kids don’t get this part of classical music, and I’m so happy to see that they get it.”

Committee member Miccie McNee has been involved since the program’s inception 14 years ago, and said the musicians have visited tens of thousands of children since then.

“There’s less and less time in the classroom for teachers to be able to touch on this,” she said. “And even the ones that are blessed by programs where they pick up an instrument or sing in choir, it nourishes them as well by showing the professional musicians.”

Garcia agreed, saying that teachers are so pressed for time that things like classical music are often not included in the curriculum. While some schools, like Skyridge, have a band and music teacher, it’s still important to expose students to different genres of music.

“We’re pressed by so many standards and things that we have to find a way to fit it in, because it’s important,” he said. “That’s why they call it classical.”

Reach Krissi Khokhobashvili at krissik@goldcountrymedia.com.

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More music for kids

Children of all ages are welcome to the upcoming KinderKonzer, presented by the Auburn Symphony from 11 a.m. to noon Saturday, Feb. 11, at the Placer High School Theater, 275 Orange St., Auburn.

Maestro Michael Goodwin introduces the selections and the instruments of the orchestra in a program designed to inspire children to a lasting love of classical music. Twelve-year-old Young Artists Competition winner Alexis Keller is the featured violin soloist.

Tickets cost $7 at www.auburnsymphony.com.

A world-class pianist brings his lifelong experience to the foothills this weekend as he performs with the Auburn Symphony for its latest Masterworks concerts, “Cathedrals of Sound.”

Soloist Konstantin Soukhovetski, born in Russia, said he can’t remember a time in his life when he didn’t play piano. He has lived in New York City for 13 years, where he earned his undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in piano performance at The Juilliard School. Today he’s a full-time musician who has made the time for several years to return to Auburn to play with the symphony.

Soukhovetski’s relationship with the symphony here began at Juilliard in 2006, when Michael Goodwin, symphony conductor, went on the hunt for phenomenal musicians to perform in the Gold Country. The symphony was searching for graduating musicians from major conservatories, and contacted Juilliard. Soukhovetski performed Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, and the response was so positive that he re-turned a few years later to play Tchaikovsky.

“He plays wonderfully,” Goodwin said. “He’s a top international performer and he’s a very nice person. … He’s very musical and very sensitive, and a wonderful pianist.”

In New York, Soukhovetski has a full performance schedule, including playing in a four-piano “super band,” Fourtissimo. Soukhovetski is also a film and stage actor and recently produced a reality show “Real Pianists of the Hamptons,” following the performers at Pianofest in the Hamptons, where Soukhovetski is an artist in residence.

For this trip to Auburn, Soukhovetski will be the featured soloist during Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor. The pianist said he enjoys playing with the Auburn Symphony because while the members are volunteers, they are also top-notch musicians.

“Every time I come back they get better,” Soukhovetski said. “There’s progress, very visible progress, which I think is wonderful. Any musical institution has to work at getting better all the time, otherwise it gets kind of stale. So I’m very much excited to hear them again and play with them.”

Soukhovetski was in Auburn for his 31st birthday Thursday, where he performed at a fundraiser for the symphony’s musical education program.
Jennifer Keck, a violinist and founding symphony musician, said she looks forward to performing with Soukhovetstki every time he’s in town.

“I think he’s terrific,” she said. “He’s full of energy, life, vitality. He brings with him that drama, that flair, that pizzazz. It makes it very exciting to play with not only an exciting and brilliant pianist, but also somebody who’s got such a wonderful personality. He loves what he’s doing.”

In addition to Mozart, the symphony will perform Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 in E Flat Major, which Goodwin said provides an “emotional counterbalance” to Mozart. Bruckner was an Austrian composer in the 1800s whose works were known for their dramatic variations.

“I have always liked his musical language very much – his harmonic progression, the way he builds things,” Goodwin said. “The majesty of it is incredibly positive.”

Goodwin said his goal for this weekend’s performances is for audience members to lose themselves in the music.

“A transcendental experience is what I’d really like,” he said. “Where they get their petty thoughts and needs, and whatever is going on in their lives, and just take away something timeless.”

Reach Krissi Khokhobashvili at krissik@goldcountrymedia.com.

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“Cathedrals of Sound”

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 22

Where: Placer High School Theater, 275 Orange St., Auburn

Cost: Tickets $30 to $45 at www.auburnsymphony.com

Info: (530) 823-6683, www.auburnsymphony.com

History imbues small town with sense of ongoing connection and vibrancy

Auburn is the sort of town where the mayor personally serves the popcorn on free downtown movie nights, the fairgrounds offers something fun to do nearly every weekend, and grocery shopping can be a time-consuming affair.

“It’s very community-oriented here, so when you go to the grocery store, you’ll see two or three people you know every time,” said Susan Teixeira, broker for Better Homes Realty in Auburn. “Sometimes I’m wearing my incognito wear — baseball cap and hair in a ponytail — just so I can get my shopping done.”

Knowing the neighbors is easy in Auburn and one of the pleasantries that makes residents stay put and attracts newcomers looking for a small-town connection.

Reese Browning, owner of Old Town Pizza, learned firsthand the power of such connection in 2005 when a fire devastated his business and several others in Auburn’s historical downtown core.

“The town pulled together and had fundraising events to help employees who lost their jobs during the rebuilding,” he said. “The city established special expedited processes for permitting. We reopened six months to the day. It was so unique, and it felt special.”

Auburn residents consider their city, the county seat of Placer County with a population of 13,330, one of the best places to live in Northern California.

Bordered by the American River Canyon, the city is part of the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, 30 miles northeast of Sacramento, and was a key transportation and supply hub after the discovery of gold in 1848.

Once home to the hill Nisenan, a subset of the Maidu tribe of native Americans, the site was first visited in the 1840s by hunters and fur trappers, then quickly transformed into a bustling mining and supply camp in Auburn Ravine during the Gold Rush. It officially became known as Auburn in 1849.

Trails that served riders on horseback and mule, as well as wagons and stagecoaches, provide the basis of the city’s commercial and residential streets today.

Auburn incorporated in 1860 and again in 1888. The stately Placer County Courthouse in Auburn was completed in 1898.

The city’s location ensures temperate weather much of the time.

“We’re unique geographically,” Browning said. “Auburn is above the fog and below the snow. It’ll be foggy in Sacramento and snowing in the mountains, and it’ll be beautiful and sunny in Auburn. It’s an amazing area.”

And it’s a welcoming area, too, said Auburn Mayor Bill Kirby, urologist by day, volunteer popcorn maker by night and resident of the city for more than 30 years.

“Auburn’s a very grounded community, with people who’ve been here awhile and people who are just moving in,” he said.

Those looking to move in have many home-buying choices, including mobile homes, modest ranch homes, modern luxury homes and historically significant Victorians, said Marti Messina, a Realtor associate in the Auburn office of Lyon Real Estate.

Messina said entry-level homes in Auburn are typically 1,300 square feet to 1,600 square feet, in good condition and priced from the mid-$250,000s. At the high end are homes priced at $900,000 or more.

The Auburn real estate picture has some differences compared with other locales in the Sacramento region, she said.

“We didn’t have the influx of mass-produced homes at the height of the market, as in other areas, so we don’t have as big a distressed-sale market here,” Messina said. “Also, there are a couple of condo developments in Auburn but not as many as in other communities.”

A big draw for Auburn residents and visitors is its celebration of life indoors and outdoors.

The Auburn State Recreation Area is the site of many endurance-sports events, including the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run and the Tevis Cup Equestrian Ride. Both have set international standards for equestrian and running endurance competition.

The visual, performing and literary arts also flourish in Auburn. Among the city’s many arts groups are the Auburn Symphony, Placer Community Theater, the Foothill Storytelling Guild, the Placer Artists League and the year-old Auburn Hip Hop Congress, which has galvanized the city’s young.

Music has intrigued and inspired many youth in the area, and has led them to discover who they are and what they can accomplish by doing what they love.

Jazzed about music

Chad Deacon, 18, a recent graduate of Bear River High School, will attend University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music in the fall on scholarship, where he will major in Jazz Studies. Deacon was selected as the 1st chair Tenor Saxophone at University of the Pacific’s Summer Jazz Camp in 2010. He plays all four of the common saxophones, but specializes in tenor and alto.

As a member of the marching and jazz bands at his high school, he won the band’s Outstanding Soloist Award all four years. Deacon has also been involved in the Auburn Youth Symphony, Sierra College Jazz Band, Nevada County Community Band, Western International Band Clinic Honor Band, and the California Band Directors Association All State band.

Recently, he played with Sacramento Symphonic Winds, where he played an abridged version of a Glazunov Concerto for Alto Saxophone.

Deacon originally played the clarinet, but liked the versatility of the saxophone and the ability to play both classical and jazz music.

“Music is totally different than schoolwork,” Deacon said. “It has become more enjoyable the better I get.”

Deacon’s passion for music stems from its ability to express emotion, tell a story, or create a memorable moment. His favorite song to play is “Know You By Heart” by Dave Koz, which he played for his dad one Christmas.

“You can connect to a lot of people playing music,” Deacon said. “It’s kind of like a universal language.”

Music time is family time

Annie Begin, 16, is a homeschool student living in Colfax whose passion for music stems from her strong relationship with her family.

“My mom was my piano teacher, and I started playing at age 4,” Begin said. “I started playing the violin at 7, and it is now my favorite and most trained instrument.”

Begin practices the violin three to four hours a day, and takes lessons from her teacher, Gayaneh Kumar, in Los Angeles on e to three times a month.

“I’ve been teaching Annie for many years, and I am very proud of her,” Kumar said. “She has a great ability to improve, is hardworking, always likes to be challenged, and is very technically advanced.”

Her dedication to music marries with her family ties in the band she has formed with her mom, brother, and sister. They play a mix of rock, bluegrass, and country.

“We kind of do what people want,” Begin said. The family band mostly plays at senior homes and parties, but Begin hopes to play “bigger gigs” in the upcoming years. Her favorite song to play is “Rock This Town” by the Stray Cats.

“I love entertaining people and making them happy with music,” Begin said. Her family has made a tradition of doing this together.

“We have a lot of fun doing it. We would be spending time together 24/7 anyway, but music’s kind of what we do.” Begin said. “It is the most important part of human life. That’s what I think.”

Violinist in the

making

Alexis Keller, 11, of Loomis, has a different story to tell. Keller was this year’s Grand Prize Winner of the Auburn Symphony Annual Young Artist Competition, in which she played Accolay Concerto No. 1 in A minor. According to Rob Haswell, Business Manager of the Auburn Symphony, the competition gives serious musicians ages 8 to 20 throughout the Nevada, Placer, and El Dorado counties the opportunity to compete for cash prizes.

Keller began playing the violin at age 3 at Sierra Christian Academy where each student was required to learn to play the violin. Her mother has also acted as her violin teacher, and the two have played together as a duo. Keller’s favorite piece they have done is a Bach Doubles Concerto for two violins. She currently attends Rocklin Academy, and has been a member of the Sacramento Youth Symphony for almost five years, which has provided her great opportunities and her favorite trips to Disneyland.

Keller recently auditioned for and was accepted to take lessons with Anna Presler, who lives in Berkeley but teaches at Sacramento State twice a week. She has learned a lot on her musical journey thus far, and is moving on to new opportunities.

“Ben Dominitz [her previous teacher] has been a good teacher to me and has gotten me very far,” Keller said.

Keller’s success has been great, but her passion for music lies simply in using it as a creative outlet.

“I like how you get to express yourself in the music and not just play the notes,” Keller said. “I will definitely keep playing the violin in the future.”