Coming Full Circle Back to Symphony Hall
The ASYO offered a path to the ASO for nine current members
As a junior in high school, Jake Darnell doesn’t remember especially wanting to play the timpani. But in his second concert with the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, he found himself on stage in Symphony Hall, sticks in hand, anchoring the ensemble in Ernest Bloch's “Schelomo: Hebrew Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra.” To say it was a new experience is putting it mildly.
“I don’t know why they were letting the new kid play timpani,” he remembered of that early concert. “It was my first time playing on professional instruments, I was playing a German setup and I had a bunch of tuning changes.” He continued, “I actually do remember this being a very different and difficult experience for me. It was really pushing me to the next level.”
Darnell is now finishing his first season as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Timpani.
Since its founding in 1974, around 2,600 high school musicians have participated in the ASYO across 52 seasons. In addition to Darnell, eight of these former ASYO musicians perform in the ASO. Christopher Pulgram, Sou-Chun Su, Julia Su, Ray Kim, Nicholas Scholefield, William Cooper, Michael Jarrett, and Michael Stubbart all found their way to the big Atlanta ensemble after their time with the junior orchestra.
While the ASO doesn’t track which youth orchestra alumni end up in professional orchestras, there are a substantial amount of ASYO graduates performing in major ensembles today (not to mention the alumni who have become music teachers and are involved in the music world in other ways).
Many ASO players serve as coaches and mentors for budding musicians, but it’s really the overall environment that helps push musicians toward a classical career: a schedule of demanding rehearsals, performing for large crowds in Symphony Hall and being exposed to the musician life at an early age.
“On a very direct level, it was being around these people week after week and being inspired by them,” said Darnell, who grew up outside the perimeter and rarely came into Atlanta before he joined the ASYO.
Violinist Julia Su grew up in the ASO orbit. Her parents both perform in the orchestra—her father in an ASYO alumn— so it seemed a bit like destiny when she auditioned for the ASYO during her freshman year in high school. She stayed in the ensemble throughout high school, serving as Concertmaster for her junior and senior years.
She described the ASYO as “a bunch of teenagers all bonding over one shared passion.” Like Darnell, she noted that the environment was truly inspiring.
“It was really the camaraderie and the friendships formed that really tied the whole experience together,” she said. “I felt really supported and understood by all my peers.”
Nicholas Scholefield had played in orchestras off and on since middle school, but didn’t start zeroing in on his love of the bass until his first year at Allatoona High School in Acworth. Like Darnell, who also lived far away from Symphony Hall, Scholefield didn’t join the ASYO until later in his high school career at the prompting of former ASO bassist Doug Sommer.
“I definitely saw ASYO as a way to get closer to the Atlanta Symphony, basically being around professionals, getting coachings, and going to a lot of concerts,” he said, adding that he soon started going to as many shows as he could, courtesy of the free tickets that came as a perk of ensemble membership. “It kind of turned into an every week kind of thing; being able to see the orchestra all the time was huge for me.”
Scholefield said being surrounded by high-level musicians helped elevate his own playing. He remembered performing in the orchestra with his teacher’s son, Andrew Sommer, who now performs with the Chicago Symphony. Another standout, bassist Xavier Foley, had already been through the bass section before Scholefield arrived.
The ASYO also helped prepare Scholefield for the next step in his career by introducing him to true orchestral music.
“Playing real repertoire is also another thing that I had not really done before that,” he said. “It's like, the first thing I played at ASYO was the ‘Firebird,’ and I was sitting principal.”
Most of all, Scholefield credits the organization and conductor Jere Flint for creating something authentic.
“He really made it feel like it was a serious thing that needed to be taken seriously. This wasn't just for sort of goofing around and not showing up or showing up unprepared,” Scholefield said. “It felt like a taste of a professional experience.”
For nine current ASO musicians and a host of other professional performers around the world, that taste of a professional experience formed the base for a successful career in music.