Students find community through local youth orchestra

Photo by Levana Lai

Junior Levana Lai practices her piece during break at orchestra rehearsal.

Growing up, local youth orchestra founder Byung Woo Kim always had a deep interest in music, particularly the violin. After attending a performance of the Netherland’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, a prestigious concert hall, he was inspired to pursue a  career as a professional musician. In 2007, he founded a local youth orchestra, now known as California Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (CPYO). 

Over the years, CPYO has provided a musical home to dozens of Saratoga High School students, allowing them to gain friendships, leadership skills and confidence in their individual talents. 

CPYO takes place at the Joan Pisani Senior Center in Saratoga and is split into two sub-orchestras. The senior orchestra has roughly 100 members, and an associate orchestra has roughly 50 members. Both are conducted by Kim and managed by orchestra manager Anh Tuan Huynh. 

The senior orchestra acts as CPYO’s advanced orchestra for high school students, and the associate orchestra acts as CPYO’s development orchestra for elementary and middle school students. 

Before founding CPYO, Kim graduated from the Juilliard School of Music and the University of Michigan with a master’s degree in music. He served as the concertmaster of the Juilliard Symphony and the San Jose Symphony before it dissolved in 2002.

As the founder and conductor of CPYO, Kim hopes students can utilize their experiences from  CPYO in the future, continuing to pursue activities regarding orchestral music. 

“This experience is worthwhile and is something I hope students will cherish their whole lives,” Kim said. 

As for orchestra manager Huynh, his job essentially consists of hiring musicians, organizing orchestra events, managing the legal work and helping out orchestra members. 

Before officially becoming CPYO manager in 2014, Huynh received his bachelor’s in music from San Jose State University with a concentration in tuba performance. His professional playing career has brought him to notable performance halls such as the Davies Symphony Hall and the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany.

As orchestra manager, Huynh emphasizes that a big part of his role includes “meeting orchestra members where they are in their musical journey” and essentially supporting them with whatever they want to pursue through CPYO. 

“The range of talent is really wide, and people’s intentions with CPYO are so diverse,” Huynh said. “Whether it’s preparing for Juilliard auditions [prestigious music school], or just being there for the extracurricular and friends. My job is to bridge that gap between people’s intentions and CPYO’s mission where hopefully everyone can look back and say that their time was well spent.”

For sophomore Sarang Narasimhan, CPYO serves as a relaxing break from school work. Being a part of CPYO has given him the opportunity to gain valuable friendships, and allowed him to connect with music. 

“There’s funny parts in rehearsal where sometimes we mess up and it’s fairly obvious because people start laughing,” Narasimhan said. “In general it’s really fun.” 

Narasimhan joined CPYO’s associate orchestra in fifth grade as a second violin. Now, he currently acts as the concertmaster for CPYO’s senior orchestra, which allows him to gain more knowledge of music and help him develop into a better leader.

Junior Levana Lai said that the camaraderie of CPYO makes the group particularly special. During CPYO’s annual summer orchestra camp, she recalls hiking with her friend off campus for 20 minutes, and coming back realizing that they were 10 minutes late for a surprise rehearsal. 

“Honestly, it’s my friendships at CPYO that make me look forward to rehearsal,” Lai said.

Lai joined CPYO’s senior orchestra in ninth grade as a second flutist. Now she acts as the first flute co-principal of CPYO’s premier orchestra and feels that she has gained more confidence in her skills and leadership.

“Whenever I mess up, I realize that nobody really cares in the long run,” Lai said. “So that’s a good thing.”

As the only Saratoga-based youth orchestra, CPYO serves as a significant community for students to express their love for music. Through CPYO, students are provided the opportunity to join in on musical activities that they can’t experience elsewhere.

“Both Mr. Kim and I derived so much joy from this classical music tradition and we found a lot of joy in finding community in the orchestra,” Huynh said. “A lot of [CPYO] is just sharing the things that make orchestra fun for us.”