Opus 15
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CWOTO Opus 15

"Mostly Mozart"

Tickets: 

    Performance #1: Oceanview Pavilion is handling all ticket sales. Reservations can be made by calling (805) 986-4818.

    Performance #2: Tickets will be on sale in the lobby of the theatre, not the box office, one hour prior to the event.

    $20 general / $10 senior & student

Performers and Their Pieces

Those performers whose names are marked with an asterisk (*) were winners of the January 2006 Conejo Valley Youth Orchestras Competition.

Overture to the Marriage of Figaro    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Conejo Concerto Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Thomas Osborn

Concerto No. 3 in E-flat Major, K. 447    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

    Allegro

Ms. Samantha Luxenberg,* 16, is currently a sophomore at Agoura High School. She has been studying the horn with Phyllis Rautenberg for six years and recently began studying with Brian Drake as well. Samantha plays in various orchestra and chamber music groups throughout Los Angeles including Conejo Valley Youth Orchestras and brass quintet and Orchestra da Camera at the Colburn School. At school, she participates in the Agoura High School Wind Ensemble and Concert Band and recently the pit orchestra for the school musical.

In previous years, Samantha has played in the Idyllwild Arts Symphonic Band and Festival Wind Ensemble, and YMF’s Debut Orchestra Camp. This June, she will be attending the Horn Seminar at the Tanglewood Institute.  Last summer, Samantha played the Schumann Koncertstück for four horns and orchestra with the CWOTO Orchestra.

Outside of music, Samantha is an involved member of her school’s mock trial team. She enjoys spending her free time listening to the works of Beethoven, Mahler, Mozart, and Prokofiev, spending time with friends and family, reading, going to the beach, running, practicing, and learning about history and the law.

Concerto No. 12 in A Major, K. 414    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

    Allegro

Ms. Vivian Rotenstein, 12, has been studying piano since the age of five. She was originally a student of Gloria Hilliard, and began her studies in 2003 with her current piano teacher, Edward Francis.  When she was 10, she was a medal winner at the Regional Bach Festival in Ventura   She won gold medals at the Contemporary Music Festival sponsored by the Conejo Valley MTAC and recently performed in the Certificate of Merit Honors Recital.

Vivian is a student at Medea Creek Middle School and a member of the Associated Student Body at her school. Besides playing the piano, she enjoys doing ballet and modern dance and she was part of the Nutcracker production with the Pacific Festival Ballet Company, in 2004 and 2005.  Vivian also loves to sing and she appeared in the musical productions of “Crazy for You” and “Oklahoma” with the Musical Theater Stages.  She plays soccer and basketball and is a member of Girl Scouts of America. In her free time she enjoys reading, writing stories and being with her friends.

Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16    Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907)

Mr. Gordon Wong    Allegro molto moderato

Mr. Kevin Fitzgerald    Allegro moderato molto e marcato

Mr. Gordon Wong, 17, is a junior at Thousand Oaks High School.  Born in China, he moved to Canada, where he began his piano studies in Winnipeg with Joan Passey.  When he moved to California in 1999, he began studying with Edward Francis.  After seven years, Gordon achieved the Advanced Level of the Certificate of Merit, qualifying for the second level of Panel performance.  He has participated in many Southern California Jr. Bach Festivals, Contemporary and Fall Music Festivals, and the Cypress College Piano Era Competitions, in which he was awarded several gold medals and honor recitals.  He has also been attending the Colburn School of Performing Arts’ Piano Master Classes.

At school, Gordon is quite a scholar, earning a 4.42 GPA. In addition, he plays the tenor saxophone and the clarinet in the nationally ranked Lancer Marching Band, Wind Ensemble, and Jazz Band.  Gordon volunteers in the emergency room of the Simi Valley Hospital.  In his free time, Gordon enjoys learning computational molecular biology, doing net ionic equations, swimming, studying history, listening to music, reading about Franz Liszt, and reading political satire.

Mr. Kevin Fitzgerald, 17, is a senior at Simi Valley High School and has been studying piano for 12 years.  He studied with Carolyn Miccolis for seven years and currently studies with Edward Francis. For four years he won gold at the Music Teacher’s Association of California Contemporary Festival; for three years he won the local and regional levels of the Southern California Junior Bach Festival; and he earned Certificate of Merit Honors for the past six years.  Kevin also earned a scholarship from the Fe Bland Foundation and has attended the Colburn School of Music Honors Program.

Academically, Kevin is ranked in the top five percent of his class.  A member of his school’s Forensics and Mock Trial teams, he was recently awarded Best Defense Attorney in Ventura County in Mock Trial, and also earned a place at the state competitions in Forensics. 

After high school, Kevin plans to attend the University of California, Santa Cruz to major in film and digital media and minor in music with an emphasis in piano performance.

Concerto No. 19 in F Major, K. 459    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

    Allegro

Ms. Natalie Katz, 17, is a high school senior. While she has been home-schooled for ten years, this year she started taking classes at Moorpark College as well.  She has studied piano for twelve years with Danna Southwell, and has also taken lessons with Brian Carr and Brad Gregory. She enjoys ballet, ballroom dancing, sewing, and performing with Much Ado About Shakespeare. Natalie is a National Merit Scholar and also received a Presidential Scholar nomination.

Natalie does not know where she will be attending college in the fall, though by the time of this concert, she will have decided. If you are curious, you can hunt her down after the concert and ask her.

Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

    Allegro

Mr. Vlad Vizireanu, a graduate of Westlake High School, is currently a third-year student at UCLA. He was a scholarship Piano Performance student of Walter Ponce, the chair of the piano department, but has now decided to focus on Musicology as his major. 

His first teachers were Angela Hsu and Raya Sadigursky, both of Westlake Village. When he was a freshman in high school, he began studying with Edward Francis. He was a winner in the Southern California Jr. Bach Festival and participated in the Contemporary and Romantic Festivals and the Certificate of Merit of MTAC. He has performed at various venues, including the Gold Medal Awards Recital at the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks, the Panel Honors Recital at the Mission Inn in Riverside at the MTAC Convention, the Modern Arts Museum in Costanta, Romania, and the CWOTO Orchestra in its OPUS 2 & OPUS 4 concerts. He was the top scholarship winner in the Bernice Bernard Auditions during his senior year in high school.   He has an interest in acting, dance and the martial arts. His more serious interests now include further studies in Graduate School.

Symphonie Espagnole, Op. 21    Édouard Lalo (1823 - 1892)

    Allegro non troppo

Ms. Jennifer Liu,* 14, began studying violin at the age of four with her mother, Shuwei Liu.  At the age of eight, she started taking lessons with her current teacher,  Gayaneh Kumar.  In 2003, Jennifer was the student soloist with the New West Symphony for eight concerts for 10,000 students from Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.  In 2004, she was chosen as a New West Symphony Discovery Artist.  In February 2005, she was invited by the Young Musician’s Foundation to perform as a “Distinguished Young Artist” in Disney Concert Hall.

Also in 2005, Jennifer was the recipient of other honors: a Bronislaw Kaper Award; a “Most Promising Young Musician” scholarship by the Los Angeles Philharmonic; a Young Musician’s Foundation Scholarship, and as a winner in the 29th International Young Artists Peninsula Competition.  Previously she was a winner in the Southwestern Youth Music Festival, in ASTA competitions, Pacific Symphony Concerto Competition, Lennox Young Artists Competition in Texas, and in the VOCE Branch Competition of MTAC.

Jennifer is active in both chamber ensembles and orchestras.  She is currently a member of the Young Musician’s Foundation Debut Orchestra and the Conejo Valley Youth Orchestras.  

Currently, Jennifer is in the 8th grade at Medea Creek Middle School in Oak Park.   She also enjoys swimming and writing.

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