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Directors stage an opportunity

Philharmonic's Youth Arts Day spotlights Central Kentucky's young talent

By Rich Copley rcopley@herald-leader.com

When violinist Jonathan Karp takes the stage with the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras' Symphony Orchestra, he's usually the concertmaster, the leader of the ensemble who brings everyone to attention and gets them ready to go.

On Sunday afternoon, at Youth Arts Day, he will take the stage at Singletary Center for the Arts and sit next to another concertmaster: the Lexington Philharmonic's Daniel Mason.

The concert will be a first for Karp and many of his fellow CKYO musicians: a chance to play side by side with their professional counterparts, members of the Philharmonic.

"None of us have had an opportunity to do anything like this before," said Karp, 16, a junior at the School for Creative and Performing Arts and a pre-engineering major at Lafayette High School. "It will be a great experience that will show us what's possible."

It also will be a dream realized for Joe Tackett, a bassist with the Philharmonic and its former education director.

Growing up in Lexington, Tackett, who is now executive director of the Lexington Ballet, played in CKYO but never got to perform in side-by-side concerts like friends in other towns who got to pair up with their local professional orchestras.

"For most of us, members of the Philharmonic were our teachers, and I'd wonder, 'Why can't we play with them?'" Tackett said.

This spring, when both the Philharmonic and Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras hired new music directors, Tackett saw a chance to change the culture.

"I think he actually talked to me about it when I interviewed for the LPO job," said Kayoko Dan, who applied for both jobs and was named CKYO music director in April. "Since I had a background in youth orchestras, I said, 'That sounds great.'"

Dan had a disappointment similar to Tackett's while growing up in Houston.

"The Houston Symphony was a great, world-class orchestra, but we never got to play with them in a side-by-side concert," Dan said.

Tackett said he had prepared to meet with Dan and new Philharmonic conductor Scott Terrell with statistics and anecdotes to make his case, but he was surprised that the conductors were on board from the beginning.

"Pretty much every organization I've been affiliated with has had a side-by-side component," Terrell said. "The LPO and CKYO need to forge this partnership."

Students from the Lexington Ballet and singers from SCAPA will be part of the Youth Arts Day concert, the first family concert of the season for the Philharmonic. Fayette County Public Schools students will exhibit artwork in the lobby.

Everyone benefits from these events, the conductors said. For the students, it's a chance to play with professional musicians.

"When you play next to someone who plays better than you, you naturally play better," Dan said. "It encourages you to try to attain the next level."

By having that experience, she said, student musicians might see being a professional musician as a more realistic possibility. They also get a look at a professional rehearsal routine. The student musicians have only one rehearsal with the Philharmonic players to get ready for the performance, although they have been practicing since CKYO rehearsals started in September. The Youth Orchestras' Symphony Orchestra will be split in two, with half playing one part of the concert and the second group playing the other. Dan will conduct, as will Terrell.

There already is a lot of interaction between Philharmonic members and student musicians in the Lexington area, because many musicians in the orchestra are also private teachers. Karp, for instance, is Mason's student, and Tackett said he's excited to be playing with some of his bass students.

Karp said he thinks there will be a difference between being in Mason's studio and sitting next to him, working toward the common goal of bringing a piece of music to life.

The benefits, Dan said, are not a one-way street.

"It's great for the orchestra musicians to be reminded of where they were before they became professionals," she said. "It's kind of nice for them to go back to where they started." She conducted side-by-side concerts when she was the assistant conductor of the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra.

Everyone involved said they hope to make side-by-side concerts a tradition for the Philharmonic and CKYO. It might not be an annual tradition, but Terrell said, "I think Kayoko and I would like to see every high school student that goes through CKYO have this experience."