Loni Yin began studying the cello in the fifth grade, and in the sixth she landed a spot in the Portland Youth String Ensemble, a group that feeds into the Portland Youth Philharmonic. In due time, she moved up the ladder to the organization’s No. 2 ensemble, the Conservatory Orchestra. “Because I grew up in a household full of musicians, music was so constant to me,” Lin says. “I was in the Conservatory Orchestra, and in my school orchestra. A lot of the friends I’ve met through music, we really enjoy playing music together and having a passion for music.
“Then the pandemic hit,” Yin recalls, and she invokes a time-honored adage: “You don’t really know the value of something until you lose it.” The shutdown was “so isolating,” she continues. The youth ensembles forged ahead online, and a video audition landed Yin a spot in the Portland Youth Philharmonic’s flagship group. Performing virtually as “just a rectangle on a large screen” left her unsatisfied, but she stuck with it until in-person sessions finally returned.
“Because I grew up in a household full of musicians, music was so constant to me,” says Portland Youth Philharmonic cellist Loni Yin. Photo by Rachel Hadiashar.
“I remember the first moment, when we were all tuning,” she says. “That was not something I usually think about. Obviously, being alone at home tuning is very different from being in a huge group, where everyone is tuning. That was something I had not heard in three years. I remember the harmony of sound. It was surreal. It was something I don’t think I’ll ever forget. It was everyone back together.
“In that moment,” she adds, “I was like, ‘This Philharmonic is really something special.’”
Here’s something else special about the Portland Youth Philharmonic: It celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.
A Portland music teacher laid the groundwork a century ago and today the group has grown into four ensembles comprising more than 300 budding musicians. Having survived national upheavals—the Depression, World War II, you name it—the Portland Youth Philharmonic bills itself as the oldest continuously operating youth orchestra in the United States. Its top ensemble marked the centennial by heading across the country for a March tour of the East Coast, with concerts in several cities.
“We have a century of successful alumni out in the world who have been positively impacting their communities,” says Executive Director Noreen Murdock. “It never fails. Any time we talk to alumni, they will say something about how the things they learned with PYP have impacted their lives and the work they do, whether it is in law or finance or IT or corporate strategy or teaching—whatever it is.”
“We have a century of successful alumni out in the world who have been positively impacting their communities,” says Executive Director Noreen Murdock. Photo by Alice Fern.
Early Days
Portland of the 1920s was a remote town, says David Hattner, the orchestra’s music director. But an enterprising music teacher, Mary V. Dodge, founded a youth ensemble—that rehearsed in her attic. When a Russian émigré conductor named Jacques Gershkovitch passed through the city, Dodge persuaded him to listen to her group, and then invited him to become its director. Gershkovitch’s command of English was so scanty that, according to the timeline on the orchestra’s website, his reply to her job offer was simply: “I take.”
That terse reply spurred the founding in 1924 of the Portland Junior Symphony, now called the Portland Youth Philharmonic. At the outset, “it was very modest,” Hattner says, but the group blossomed. In 1932, the CBS Radio Network broadcast one of its concerts nationwide, and radio appearances continued to extend its reputation into the 1950s. An off-the-air recording from 1948, Hattner says, shows that “the orchestra was awfully, awfully good at that time.”
Oregon’s first children’s orchestra, the Sagebrush Symphony, now known as the Portland Youth Philharmonic, was formed by Mary V. Dodge a century ago. Photo courtesy of the Portland Youth Philharmonic.
And the group kept going strong. How did it happen? “Having only two conductors for the first 70 years is a big part of that,” Hattner comments. Gershkovitch made up for his limited English with what alumni recalled as a “deeply charismatic, almost hypnotic power he had in rehearsals and performances.” Hattner continues, “He was really consumed by music. He also had a strong sense of what you might call musical ethics—about how one behaves in rehearsals. You’re on time, you’re prepared, you go home, and you practice.”
“The musicians are from here. The community raised them. It’s really our community’s orchestra,” says Portland Youth Philharmonic Music Director David Hattner. Photo by Zachary Person.
Gershkovitch died just before the orchestra’s 30th-anniversary celebration. To succeed him, the orchestra picked an alumnus who had studied with him at Portland’s Reed College: Jacob Avshalomov, who took over in 1954. Already primed with his teacher’s standards, Avshalomov added “a Churchillian command of the English language that his predecessor did not have,” Hattner says. “He was a remarkable public figure—very intimidating to all, highly respected and not a little feared,” Hattner continues. “The students had a healthy fear of being unprepared for rehearsal, but a great sense of gratitude for what they were given.”
Multiple Generations
Prime among those gifts was an introduction to orchestral music. For the flagship group, the past couple of seasons have included performances of musical landmarks such as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. The East Coast tour featured the “Gaelic” Symphony by the long-neglected Amy Beach.
“At every concert, I usually am brought to tears somewhat,” says double bass player Steven Walker, who will enter the 12th grade this fall. When the whole ensemble is in action, “sometimes you forget where you are. You feel connected with the orchestra and are just playing with everybody. It’s very gracious, like when you are eating some really good food. You just feel grateful for it.”
“At every concert, I usually am brought to tears somewhat,” says double bass player Steven Walker. “You feel connected with the orchestra and are just playing.” Photo by Zachary Person.
Pearl Liao, a cellist bound for college, thinks back to that Beethoven Ninth. “It was very new and refreshing to play with a choir,” she recalls. “That extra part motivated me throughout the concert.”
The orchestra weaves into the players’ personal lives. Walker has made some of his best friends there, he says. Liao recalls that one of the pleasures of the East Coast tour was having time to bond with fellow musicians. To Lin, the orchestra is a family affair: Her mother played the flute in it, she says, and three of Yin’s cousins preceded her.
The high standards set by Gershkovitch and Avshalomov, who retired in 1995, have been maintained by their successors. Huw Edwards served as music director from 1995 to 2002, then went on to lead the Olympia Symphony Orchestra in Washington for nearly two decades. Mei-Ann Chen, who led the young Portland musicians from 2002 to 2007, has been music director of the Chicago Sinfonietta since 2011, and in 2024 was named artistic director of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra in Massachusetts. Hattner, who started his career as a clarinetist, took over in 2007. “Nothing has really changed about the expectations in this orchestra for 100 years,” Hattner says. And the discipline pays dividends beyond music.
“My concentration has improved a lot,” Liao says. “It helps with your patience with everyday schoolwork as well.” Walker says that the orchestra “has taught me a lot about focus and being pretty professional at a young age.” “You’re motivated to work harder,” Yin says. “You help each other build up. It’s not really competitive. I don’t think the Philharmonic is something toxic. Everyone is helping each other out. In the Philharmonic, I feel like I’ve found my niche—a place where I can be safe and heard.”
“My concentration has improved a lot,” cellist Pearl Liao says of playing with the youth orchestra. “It helps with your patience with everyday schoolwork as well.” Photo by Zachary Person.
Hattner has seen where the personal evolutions lead. If a player transfers the focus and preparation the orchestra demands into other pursuits, educational or professional, “you’re going to do just fine,” he says. Most of the musicians opt for STEM subjects as their college majors.
And some of the orchestra’s alumni pursue careers in music. Probably the best-known so far was the 1937-38 season’s concertmaster: Robert Mann, who went on to found and play first violin in the Juilliard String Quartet. Alumni active today include Daniel Avshalomov, Jacob’s son, longtime violist of the American String Quartet; Max Blair, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s associate principal oboe; Keith Buncke, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s principal bassoon; Roger Kava, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s principal horn; Maria Schleuning, a first violinist in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; and eight current members of the Oregon Symphony.
Repertoire: Then and Now
Jacob Avshalomov doubled as a composer, and he made modern music part of the orchestra’s identity. ASCAP recognized his efforts with its award for adventurous programming of contemporary music, which the orchestra received twice. The emphasis on modern music continues. During the pandemic, the orchestra responded to the limitations by commissioning 31 works to be performed by virtual orchestra. Hattner recalls encouraging the composers to “take advantage of (virtual concerts’) advantages over live performance—if they could think of any.”
Korean-American composer Texu Kim took him up on the challenge. Kim’s Jump!! layers contrasting rhythmic patterns that could be tough for players hearing them in a group, Hattner explains, but pose no problem for musicians working at home with a click track, exposed only to their own part. “It’s a great piece,” Hattner declares, and his ensemble eventually tackled it in a live performance. “It requires a great deal of concentration,” he adds, “and careful rehearsing.” (The San Diego Symphony will premiere Kim’s Welcome Home!! Fanfare for Brass when the orchestra reopens Jacobs Music Center on Sept. 28).)
Community Trust
Connecting with the community is another longtime facet of the Portland Youth Philharmonic’s DNA. The group’s children’s concerts date back generations. Its peer mentor program, launched in the 1990s, sends members of the orchestra out to give lessons to beginners. “Band and orchestra directors and parents love this program,” Hattner says, and the young people on both sides of the relationship benefit. Cellist Liao taught two students this past year, she says, and they made “tremendous progress. It’s inspiring to see the progress young musicians who are just starting can make. They are so interested.”
The Philharmonic is looking for more ways to join forces with local groups. Community Programs Manager Lavender-Cygnét de Julia hopes to partner with CymaSpace, a nonprofit devoted to arts access for the deaf and hard of hearing. “If we could get a chamber group to perform with sound-recognition technology, imagine the impact that could have on our greater Disabled community in Portland,” she says.
The Philharmonic is working on more ways to join forces with schools, executive director Murdock says. One prospect: scholarships to help promising students afford private lessons, improving their chances of getting into the orchestra. Meanwhile, the group’s community programs manager, Lavender-Cygnét de Julia, hopes to partner with CymaSpace, a nonprofit devoted to arts access for the deaf and hard of hearing. “CymaSpace has a unique perspective on sound and lighting,” notes de Julia. “If we could get a chamber group in there to perform with the sound-recognition technology, imagine the impact that could have on our greater Disabled community in Portland.”
In addition to performing in Strathmore Hall in Maryland, the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, and Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Mass., during their recent East Coast tour, the Portland Youth Philharmonic made time for a visit to Times Square in NYC. Photo courtesy of Classical Movements.
Even though the East Coast tour took the orchestra to the other side of North America—with performances in Strathmore Hall in Maryland, the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, and Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Mass.—Hattner hopes the trip resonates in Portland. Colleagues from his days as a clarinetist and conductor in New York, he says, heard the group and gave their approval. He thinks the home folks should take note. “The musicians are from here. The community raised them. It’s really our community’s orchestra,” Hattner says. “They should be immensely proud that they can go to New York City and the Boston area, and have professional musicians come and say, ‘That was awfully good.’ ”
The League’s Youth Orchestra Division
The mission of the Youth Orchestra Division of the League of American Orchestras is to promote youth orchestras as essential musical, educational, and cultural assets and to provide resources to help all youth orchestras build and maintain artistic and organizational excellence. The Youth Orchestra Division has an 18-member board of directors drawn from ensembles nationwide, as well as a leadership team that manages the YOD and serves as an advisory group to the League. Founded by Betty Utter in 1975, the Youth Orchestra Division currently has 105 youth orchestras as members, and invites new members from youth orchestras that are independent organizations, under the umbrella of an adult orchestra organization, are a summer program, or are part of a school. The League’s Youth Orchestra Division offers members information and resources, several in-person gatherings each year, peer-to-peer Zoom meetings, networking opportunities, and more. Questions? Contact League Member Services at Member Services at member@americanorchestras.org.
