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Update (March 24, 2020) With the recently announced closure of the Sunset Center (through May 15th) and an unknown resumption date in our community school districts, all rehearsals, events, and concerts for all ensembles have been canceled for the rest of the 2019-2020 season. This unfortunately includes the Chamber Players Benefit Concert, the Brass and Woodwind Recital, and the Spring Orchestras Concert. We are optimistic about normal activities resuming in the fall for our 2020-2021 season. The Spring Concert repertoire will be performed on the Fall concert and will include the Honors Concerto Competition winner, Bennett Bishop, as well as JYO Competition winner, Bryan Kim. As announced previously, tuition refunds are available upon request for those who paid through the end of the season; please read our original release below for information on how to proceed. Alternatively, if you are in the position, please consider donating your unused tuition as a tax-deductible donation to YMMC to sustain our organization through this difficult time. We understand this presents a significant loss for our students. We're actively working on ways to allow our musicians to continue making music, including the possibility of forming a 'virtual orchestra' with our ensembles. We'll be in touch regarding any such arrangements for your child, as well as encouragement for continuing to practice (it's a good opportunity to practice some solos!). As always, please stay well and take care. These are difficult times for everyone, but we'll find new ways to make music together. Original Release (March 16, 2020) Dear YMMC Parents and Families, It is with a heavy heart that I am writing to inform you of the recent decision of the Board to suspend YMMC rehearsals at this time. As a community, we now all face a significant challenge with the spread of the corona virus disease. The safety of your children and our community is our first priority and we need to act collectively to help prevent and slow the spread of the virus. We are also acting in accordance with the recommendations of our governor and are following the lead of our school districts. With this in mind, we are suspending all orchestra and chamber ensembles rehearsals until further notice. We will monitor events and reevaluate the situation no later than April 15th, when we will come to a full conclusion about the remainder of the season. We realize this presents a huge disruption in the routine of our students and hope that they will continue to practice their music on their own and with their private teachers. We will continue to be in communication about home practice. With the closure of Sunset Center and an unknown reopening date, a spring concert this year is in question, and we will continue to monitor that venue for availability. We are optimistic about rehearsals and concerts resuming in the Fall of 2020. If there is any way we can resume activities this spring season, we will be ready to do so. If community health directives prevent us from resuming activities this spring, the following tuition policies will be in effect: for those who have paid tuition through the end of the season, refunds will be available for the third concert portion by May 1st upon request. Alternatively, this money can be used as a credit for 2020-21. Private lessons scholarships will still be honored. Payments for outstanding balances for concerts #1 and #2 will be billed this month and are still expected to be paid in full. Last, we are asking those families who can, to consider the unused tuition as a donation to YMMC (a tax deduction), to help sustain us through this difficult time. We must continue to pay the salaries of permanent staff and thus the costs for the rest of the year are not significantly lower than if we had continued the schedule. Please take good care and stay well during this unusual time. We appreciate your understanding and flexibility. We look forward to activities returning to normal! Many Thanks, The Board and Staff of YMMC

Thanks to Lyn Bronson for his review of our March concert! "Every time I attend a YMMC concert I am impressed by the high standards these young musicians attain and also by the parental, teacher and donor support that makes it all possible. That Danko Druško is a miracle worker was even more apparent in the second half of the afternoon’s program." Read more by Lyn Bronson on Peninsula Reviews.

Honors Concerto Competition winner Lance Yang Bauer is the soloist for “The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto” to be performed March 1 at Carmel’s Sunset Center. (Courtesy photo) Enjoy an article about our upcoming March 1 concert in the Monterey Herald! "You’ll find a warm and welcoming creative atmosphere guided by music director Danko Druško, a highly regarded conductor who joined the organization last year.  Druško has conducted professional, university and youth orchestras throughout Europe and North America. (...) Executive director Suzanne Mudge brings her musical and leadership skills to the organization. She is well known to the patrons of the Carmel Bach Festival, where she serves as a hard-working member of that world-class ensemble every summer. Druško leads the Junior Youth and Honors Orchestras on Sunday, March 1 at 3 p.m. at Carmel’s Sunset Center in a concert called “Migration.” The program celebrates the brilliance of Chinese, Russian, Mexican, German, and Italian composers. Bring your kids and see for yourself the skills and enthusiasm of these young musicians." Read more in the Monterey Herald by Barbara Rose Shuler.

"In [the Honors] portion of the program we weren’t hearing dumbed-down student compositions, but rather substantial major works that in performance would have been the pride of any youth orchestra (...) Conductor Druško is to be congratulated for having in a few short months having brought the players to the high standard we heard yesterday afternoon." Lyn Bronson, Peninsula Reviews

Old News: The 2019-2020 Honors Orchestra Concerto Competition is Sunday, October 27th, from 2-6 pm at Hidden Valley Music Seminars. The deadline for submission is October 21st at 5 PM. The rules and application form can be found here; good luck! Thank you to everyone who competed! We're pleased to announce this year's winners are Lance Bauer, violin; and Bennett Bishop, euphonium. They will be playing their pieces at each of our upcoming concerts. Congratulations!

The Board and staff of YMMC are excited to announce the successful conclusion of the Music Director search! We have invited a very accomplished and highly regarded conductor, Danko Druško, to work with our students starting this August. Danko Druško was born and raised in Germany. He speaks German, English and Croatian fluently. He holds a DMA in conducting from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. He was a fellow competitor of Farkhad Khudyev at the Solti conducting competition, and was a finalist in this event. Danko’s full biography can be found on his website: https://www.dankodrusko.com/ We invite you all to see Danko and the YMMC student musicians in action this year on Sunday November 3, 2019, March 1st, 2020, and May 3, 2020. We look forward to introducing you to Danko, and hope you will join us in giving him a warm welcome to Monterey!

2019-2020 Repertoire: Concert 1 – Sunday November 3, 2019: JYO: Ippolitov – Ivanov: The Procession of the Sardar (arr. Merle Isaac) Mozart: Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio (arr. Merle Isaac) Freidrich Seitz: Violin Concerto, featuring 2019 JYO Concerto Competition Winner, Rose Finn Dukas: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (arr. Jim Higgins) Honors: Brahms: Academic Festival Overture Emmanuel Chabrier: España Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol Concert 2 – Sunday, March 1, 2020: JYO: Wagner: Rienzi Overture (arr. Sandra Dackow) Verdi: Nabucco Overture (arr. Sandra Dackow) Artés: Chamambo Sibelius: Symphony No. 2, IV (arr. Vernon Leidig) Honors: Dvorak: Symphony No. 7 in D Minor, Op. 70 Concert 3 – Sunday, May 3, 2020: JYO: Grieg: Norwegian Dances No. 2 and 3 Copland: Down a County Lane Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5 Khachaturian: Sabre Dance Honors: Honors Concerto Competition Winner Copland: Episodes from “Rodeo”

Youth Music Monterey County is pleased to announce Suzanne Mudge will become its new Executive Director beginning August 2019. Sue will continue as Coach of YMMC’s Brass Ensemble. Sue offers a wealth of experience as an educator, musician, and administrator to Youth Music Monterey County. She enjoys mentoring young musicians, and has dedicated much of her career towards creating musical opportunities for youth. Sue currently serves as Director of Community Engagement at the Carmel Bach Festival and has been a trombonist with the Festival for over thirty years. She will leave this position following the Bach Festival’s 2019 Season, which takes place July 13-27 (see https://bachfestival.org/). In addition to playing in the Festival’s Orchestra and directing both Tower Music and community outreach concerts, Sue created and scripts The Epic Adventures of Leonard and Rasmus, a series of interactive and educational concerts for families premiered at the Carmel Bach Festival. She has designed other successful and popular music education programs for the Festival, including Crossing Cultures and Sing Out Loud! Prior to joining the Carmel Bach Festival administrative staff, Sue taught at Central Oregon Community College in Bend, The Seven Peaks School, and was guest conductor of the Central Oregon Music Educators Association Honor Band. In addition, she performed with the Central Oregon Symphony, the Eugene Symphony, the Bend Brass Quintet, and soloed with the Linfield Chamber Orchestra. Her trombone students placed consistently in the top five at the Oregon State Solo and Ensemble Festivals. Before moving to Bend, Sue was an active freelance musician and music educator in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was Principal Trombone of the Women’s Philharmonic in San Francisco and the Modesto Symphony. She also performed regularly with the Fremont, Marin, Berkeley, and San Jose Symphonies. She recorded numerous CD’s at Skywalker Ranch and with the Band Director at Lowell High School in San Francisco. Sue grew up in Laguna Beach and has a B.M. from the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music, a M.M. From the University of Arizona, and a teaching credential from Notre Dame de Namur University. Sue will be missed by the Carmel Bach festival. However, her joining YMMC represents many wonderful advantages for the young musicians of Monterey County. Her knowledge of both the Carmel Bach Festival and Youth Music Monterey County will help to build the ties between these and other music organizations.

“As a former YMM student myself, this concert didn’t feel like a goodbye. Rather it was a concert like the others, beautifully played and enthusiastically conducted. YMM was one of the biggest things in my life in high school, and Maestro Khudyev was always encouraging to me, even when I didn’t play my best. Before I believed I could study music in college he did, and for that I cannot express enough gratitude. He sees potential in all his students and that is one of the best things a youth orchestra conductor can do. (…) How Khudyev has turned the student musicians of Youth Music Monterey into a popular concert juggernaut that has regularly filled the Sunset Center auditorium with SRO audiences is both a tribute to his vision and charisma.” Read more on Performing Arts Monterey Bay by Monica Mendoza and Scott McClelland.

Elizabeth Mendoza, Lance Yang Bauer, Hannah Shu, Serenai Dincer, EB Diallo & Taylan Dincer (Peninsula Reviews) “Last night at Hidden Valley Music Seminars Theater in Carmel Valley we had just such an opportunity to hear the skills of individual players as selected members of the YMMC Chamber Players performed a benefit concert consisting of four carefully chosen works that not only showed off the individual players mastery, but also how they blended together and played off each other in demanding ensemble works.” Lyn Bronson, Peninsula Reviews

Bassoon soloist Amadeus Soria (Ian Martin) “At last the Honors Orchestra took the stage to open its half of the concert with Franz von Suppé’s Light Cavalry Overture, a 19th century bristle filled with technical challenges that, for the violins, proved a stretch. The orchestra’s principal bassoonist, Amadeus Soria (photo above), took the solo spot for Andante e Rondo Ungarese by Carl Maria von Weber, an early pioneer of the Romantic style of opera. At nine minutes, and a technical workout, it is often found on competition programs. Soria’s reading was virtually flawless and attracted an instant standing ovation. This young man, who has political science on his career agenda, is well ahead of the curve as a virtuoso of the instrument.” Scott McClelland, Performing Arts Monterey Bay

Soloist Amadeus Soria & Conductor Farkhad Khudyev (Peninsula Reviews) “The brilliant young bassoon soloist, Amadeus Soria, the recent YMMC Concerto Competition winner, was featured in a lovely performance of Carl Maria von Weber’s Andante e Rondo Ungarese, Op. 35. Soria, a senior at Marina High School, and a pupil of Erin Irvine, will be attending the University of Chicago this fall. We don’t often hear a bassoon soloist with orchestra, so this was a very welcome occasion, and probably most of the people in the audience were as unfamiliar with this work as I was. Soria gets a rich sound from his instrument, and he displayed a nimble technique equal to the demands of this challenging work. He received thunderous applause and a prolonged standing ovation.” Lyn Bronson, Peninsula Reviews