Debut Orchestra

In 1955, Sylvia Kunin set out to create a premier training ground for young musicians in Los Angeles. With the assistance of legendary musicians Gregor Piatigorsky and Elmer Bernstein, Young Musicians Foundation and its Debut Orchestra was born.

Now celebrating its 57th Season, the Debut Orchestra is one of the oldest pre-professional training orchestras in the country. It is comprised of 70 talented musicians from around the world, ages 15-25. With notable alumni including Glenn Dicterow, Concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, Robert Chen, Concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony, and dozens of members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, virtually every major symphony orchestra and film score feature performers who began their careers in this orchestra.

This season the orchestra will be led by an accomplished list of returning alumni conductors: Toshiyuki Shimada, Jung-Ho Pak, Lara Webber, and Lucas Richman. They join a longer list of successful alumni conductors including André Previn, Michael Tilson Thomas, Lawrence Foster, and Daniele Hege. YMF presents a series of free concerts for the public at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica and embraces a new multi-media approach to presenting outreach concert assemblies through its 360º Music Program. The orchestra’s rich history includes more than 45 world premieres, including works by such renowned composers as Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Ingolf Dahl, Pierre Boulez and Michael Torke.

Adhering to a professional rehearsal schedule, the orchestra performs the full range of orchestra literature, from Baroque to 21st– Century, including works for both chamber and full orchestra. For more than 50 consecutive seasons, the orchestra has performed admission free concerts for the public in professional venues throughout Los Angeles, with audiences totaling more than 5,000 annually.

Last season, Mr. Scaglione led the ensemble in a YMF first — a fully staged production of Act II from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Always looking to present new experiences for both the ensemble and audience, the 2010-2011 season features a Los Angeles Premiere of John Adams’ Dr. Atomic Symphony paired with a multi-media backdrop.

Musicians are selected each year through blind auditions adjudicated by members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and other eminent, Los Angeles–based musicians. Orchestra members receive a scholarship to support their studies. The thousands of Debut alumni in orchestras around the world illustrate the importance and success of the training they receive.

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