Santa Rosa Symphony Announces Institute for Music Education and three new Youth Orchestra Conductors

The Santa Rosa Symphony (SRS) Board of Directors, recognizing the enormity of its education programs' impact on the community, has rebranded the SRS Music Education Department’s activities under the new umbrella - the Santa Rosa Symphony Institute for Music Education. The Institute is an integrated approach to music education in the broadest sense of the term, coordinating all aspects of music education for young people and adults.

The Santa Rosa Symphony Institute for Music Education consists of five component programs

• Music for our Schools programs include free concerts for youth, It’s Elementary and Primarily Classical
• Training Young Musicians comprises five youth ensembles and Summer Music Academy (SMA)
• Simply Strings, an El Sistema-inspired afterschool program, provides fully-funded instruction to underserved children at Sheppard Elementary School
• Family-oriented programs include a family concert series, discovery dress rehearsals and ensembles at library and other community events
• Adult Education is provided through open dress rehearsals, pre-concert talks, String Orchestra Workshop, master classes, select SMA classes and library events

To better communicate the progressive levels of instruction available, the Institute has renamed two of its three top-level youth ensembles.

Preparatory Orchestra becomes Santa Rosa Symphony Debut Youth Orchestra
Repertory Orchestra becomes Santa Rosa Symphony Aspirante Youth Orchestra
Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra keeps its name

All three will have new conductors in the 2018-2019 season, with the hiring of Alan Aníbal for SRS Debut Youth Orchestra and Dana Sadava for the SRS Aspirante Youth Orchestra. Robert Rogers, who has been leading the latter since 2011, will now conduct the Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra.

“The Santa Rosa Symphony is justly proud to highlight its enormous commitment to music education, now reaching more than 30,000 young people annually, and welcome three talented and exuberant conductors,” said President & CEO Alan Silow.

Formerly Preparatory Orchestra, Santa Rosa Symphony Debut Youth Orchestra is an entry-level, full-orchestra experience for beginning to intermediate musicians ages 8-15 years old. This youth orchestra will be led by conductor Alan Aníbal. Described as a “very refined conductor,” and “having an amazing energy on the podium,” Brazilian conductor Aníbal has a Master’s Degree in Conducting from Bard College, where he studied under renowned conductors Harold Farberman, Apo Hsu and Leon Botstein. A trained singer, Aníbal served as Assistant Conductor to Maestro Michael Morgan at The Festival Opera Association in Walnut Creek (Calif.) and as Associate Conductor at The Opera Company of Brooklyn (NY). He was Conductor Fellow at the Sao Paulo Municipal School, where he was Assistant Conductor of the Sao Paulo Youth Orchestra and the Sao Paulo Youth Choir.

Santa Rosa Symphony Aspirante Youth Orchestra, formerly Repertory Orchestra, is an intermediate-level full orchestra for musicians, ages 9-18 years old, and will be led by conductor Dana Sadava, a conductor of opera and symphonic works and a new music specialist. Currently Artistic Director of both Pasadena Opera and the Community Women's Orchestra, Sadava has guest conducted at Opera San Jose, the University of California San Diego, LotusFlower new music project, Cinnabar Theater, Banff Opera as Theatre, Wexford Festival Opera and the Napa Music Festival. A proud alumna of Caltech, Sadava earned a double degree in Engineering (Rocket Science) and Literature, winning an Amasa Bishop prize for study at Cambridge University, a fellowship for a research stint at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Dean's Award for Leadership. Oddly, this training prepared her well for a life of conducting, as did her piano study.

The Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra (SRSYO), the top tier orchestra for advanced players ages 10-23, which has toured internationally, will gain a new conductor, Robert (Bobby) Rogers. Bobby Rogers has been Conductor of Repertory Orchestra since 2011. A graduate of Sonoma State University (B.A. in Music Education and Jazz Performance) and Sacramento State University (M.A. in Wind Conducting), he has earned many top awards and honors for outstanding teaching. Rogers is currently the Music Director at Pioneer High School in Woodland, Director of Jazz Program at Solano Community College, adjunct Professor of Band at Woodland Community College and Artistic Director of the Yolo Community Band. He serves on the California Teachers Association State Council of Education.

This season, under Rogers' leadership, the SRSYO will present concerts in Weill Hall at the Green Music Center on November 10, March 9 and May 11. The SRSYO will also perform Bernstein’s Candide Overture side-by-side with the Santa Rosa Symphony, under the direction of SRS Music Director Francesco Lecce-Chong, at the Symphony's November 3 concert.

The Family Concert Series and Free Concerts for Youth offer performances appropriate for children in Weill Hall at the Green Music Center while the Discovery Concerts are a preview of the concert series appropriate for audience members of any age. It’s Elementary will continue to provide listening programs and performance assemblies in schools as well as Primarily Classical, an introductory outreach program.

Simply Strings, an El Sistema-inspired site-based after school program at Sheppard Accelerated Elementary School in Roseland provides children from second grade through middle school with daily intensive ensemble instruction that develops musical excellence and promotes social engagement.