Youth symphony returning home from European tour

Sixty-two tired but exhilarated musicians from the Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra are expected to arrive home Wednesday from a whirlwind European tour that concluded Wednesday night with a joint concert with the Potsdam Youth Orchestra of Germany.

“It was fantastic, it was unbelievable,” Youth Orchestra Conductor Richard Loheyde said in a phone interview after the final concert. “It was really remarkable for our kids to sit side-by-side with some real hot-shot players, but we certainly held our own too.”

The tour, which celebrated the youth orchestra’s 50th anniversary, got off to shaky start on June 17 after bad weather in Europe delayed their departure from San Francisco International Airport. Because of the late start, the plane lost its gate in Frankfurt and sat on the tarmac for 20 minutes before passengers were unloaded on the tarmac.

The students had to run to make their connecting flight to Prague, and four didn’t arrive in time. However, they joined the group by dinner time in Prague, and all the luggage arrived with no problem.

Although most of the musicians carried on or checked their own instruments, those who play big instruments such as timpani had to leave them behind because of the high transportation cost.

Instead, the orchestra rented those instruments. For a few of the players, the rental instruments proved more than a bit problematic.

“The tuba didn’t work at first, so poor Michael Murrin was up until 4 a.m. trying to get the valves working,” Loheyde said. “He succeeded, so his dedication paid off.”

Still, Loheyde reported that for the most part, the tour was surprisingly trouble free, thanks to some classically cool, European weather.

“We had a little rain, but it was nice that it wasn’t too hot and we could go on all the tours,” Loheyde said. “Today, we did a bus tour of Berlin, and we got to see a lot of East Berlin . . . Everything is brand new, and the architecture is just stunning.”

The youth orchestra launched the tour in the historic city of Prague in the Czech Republic, where they visited the famous, old synagogues and walked across the landmark Charles Bridges, which connects the Old Town to Mala Strana, the baroque quarter below the famous Prague castle.

“Walking across the bridge was spectacular, and seeing the Prague castle across from us,” trombone player Jill Reisner wrote in the orchestra’s blog on the Press Democrat Web site. “The clouds had luckily moved away at that point so we had a beautiful view.”

For the first concert, the orchestra performed a program of Bernstein, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Dvorak works at St. Saviour’s Church in Prague.

“Words can hardly describe how different the youth orchestra sounds in this venue,” symphony Director of Education Margie Harrison-Smith wrote in the blog. “When Dr. Loheyde cuts off the orchestra at the end of the piece, the sound continues at least four times longer than it does in Jackson Hall or at the Wells Fargo Center.”

After Prague, the orchestra was driven to Germany. In Leipzig, the orchestra took a walking tour of the university, paid homage to the Thomaskirche where Bach is buried and visited the Gewandhaus concert hall, home of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

The youth orchestra gave a concert in Bad Schmiedeberg, a small town outside of Leipzig, then headed out to the town of Pegau for workshops and sectionals with members of the Gewandhaus Orchestra.

The professional coaches worked mostly on the overture by Mendelssohn, who conducted most of his career in Leipzig.

“Their native tongue is Mendelssohn,” Loheyde said of the coaches. “Many of them asked to come work with the kids when they come to San Francisco in February.”

During the nine-day tour, the constant flow of rehearsals, concerts and master classes helped the young musicians evolve as individuals and gel as an ensemble, he said.

“All the youth orchestra members stepped up in their playing,” Loheyde said. “I think we have grown more in a week than in the past year.”