Youth and Honors Orchestras

South County Strings

John Larry Granger

Conductor, Youth and Honors Orchestra

John Larry Granger is in his twelfth season as Music Director of the Youth and Honors Orchestras of Youth Music Monterey. Deeply devoted to music education, Granger brings professional conducting skills and a dynamic teaching style to approximately 110 high-level students ages 8-20 who are involved in the program each year.

The students are selected by audition with Granger, who believes that student musicians are capable of music making that can rival that of adults through an outstanding marriage of passion, soul, and skill that youth bring to their playing.

Maestro Granger has also served for fourteen years as Music Director of the Santa Cruz County Symphony. Under his direction the orchestra was recently awarded the "exemplary" rating from the California Arts Council. The orchestra achieved the highest rating in the state for an orchestra of its budget size. He also has served as conductor for the "Evening of Concertos," a series of professional symphony concerts featuring young solo artists at Herbst Theater in San Francisco.

Maestro Granger has been a featured guest conductor with the New Haven Symphony, San Jose Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, Fresno Philharmonic, and Springfield Symphony, among others. He is in his third year as Music Director/Conductor of the Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre Orchestra, and served for nine years as the Music Director of the South Coast Symphony Orchestra in Costa Mesa and was the conductor of the Pomona College Orchestra from 1989-91. His theatre production work has included Stephen Sondheim's "Pacific Overtures," for which he received the Drama Logue Award for Musical Direction.

Mr. Granger attended the International Institute for Orchestral Conducting from 1979-81 and did private study in Dresden in 1981 with Herbert Blomstedt, Music Director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony. Born in New York, Granger began his career as an oboist and English horn player.

Steve Ettinger

South County String Instructor

Steve Ettinger has studied music since the age of five and has played with orchestras such as the California Youth Symphony, The El Camino Youth Symphony, American Youth Symphony, and most recently, the Masters' Sinfonia. Currently the string specialist for the King City Union School District, Steve has studied violin with Yukiko Kamei, Joseph Genualdi, and Lawrence Maves. He has written music for a variety of ensembles including orchestra, piano trio, gamelan (an ensemble of instruments from Indonesia) and has written scores for animated films. Steve holds both a BA from UCLA and MA from the University of Oregon in music composition.

Gogi Van Duren

Gogi Van Duren is a specialist in group musical training at the beginning and intermediate levels. As one of the founders of the Youth Orchestra of Southern Alameda County (a seven-tiered program based in Hayward at California State East Bay, 1985-present), and parent of three professional musicians (a pianist, cellist, and violinist) Gogi brings many years of commitment to the value of early string training, along with over 20 years as a performer, accompanist, and private teacher of piano and voice in the Bay Area. She taught strings in the Piedmont School District for three years (including a year as Director of the award-winning Piedmont High School Orchestra) where she mentored under Leonora (Streeter) Gillard. After relocating to the Central Coast in 1991, she taught elementary band and classroom music for four years in the Atascadero Unified School District, as well as high school concert, jazz, and marching banks for two years (during which band enrollment swelled from 33 to over 100 students). She developed a string program for the Cayucos School District, teaching violin, viola, cello and bass, plus a full scope of band instruments, for another four years. While there she assisted Cayucos School in hosting (along with the Atascadero School District) the first San Luis Obispo County Schools Strings Festival held in over 25 years. A B.A. and M.A. graduate of California State East Bay (Hayward) in Theory and Composition, Gogi takes great delight in writing and arranging music for students, and incorporates games for building theory and performance skills.

Arlyn Petalver

Arlyn Petalver starting playing the violin at the age of 5, after being brought to a Monterey County Symphony performance by her mother. She went on to play at the University of California Santa Barbara, studying with Ron Copes of the Juilliard String Quartet and Margaret Batjer of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Upon her graduation in 1999, she won the Clayton Wilson Award for making a significant musical contribution to the UCSB Music Department. Arlyn is currently a freelance musician, performing with various groups on the Monterey Peninsula. Dedicated to sharing her love of music with future generations, Arlyn teaches with Youth Music Monterey and the South County Strings Program and combines the pedagogy and philosophies of Jaques Dalcroze and Shinichi Suzuki in her teachings.