Christmas and Jazz came to life in the Paul Shaghoian Memorial Concert Hall on Dec. 8 to celebrate the Youth Orchestras of Fresno’s (YOOF) 75th anniversary, dubbed the “Diamond Anniversary.”

Lights in the shape of candles strung alongside the walls. Balloons, black, red and yellow, lined the stairs to the main stage. A wizard hat, akin to the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter, sat by the programs for the show.

YOOF is composed of 185 students from 67 schools across the Central Valley. They have three different orchestras: the Youth Chamber Orchestra (YCO) for begining players, the Youth Symphony Orchestra (YSO) for intermediate players and the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra (YPO) for advanced players. All three orchestras have been practicing with Thomas Loewenheim, music director and conductor for YOF, since October.

Catherine Marchese, executive director of YOOF and the Fresno Summer Orchestra Academy, expressed her aspirations for the event.

“What we do changes lives. It really inspires kids. They bring their friends and they benefit from that. They grow from it.” Marchese said. “It really is spreading the message of music, the love for music and also the rigor of music.”

This is seen in the supplements provided by YOOF. They loan instruments for free to their students while providing instruction. It is also a need based program that offers tuition assistance. They also pride themselves on their graduation rates.

“100% of our students go on to— after high school—go on to college or secondary opportunities. 100% graduate. So that is a huge, huge, accomplishment for an organization such as ours in this community,” Marchese said.

As a crowd of people waited in the lobby for the fated time to arrive, they listened to some tunes performed by Joe’s Jazz Jam, a jazz band that began during 2020 to foster musical growth and community. Joe Lenigan, a retired music educator, led the group mainly composed of YOF students.

“Fresno and the valley are incredibly wealthy, music wise. There’s plenty of great players in this valley. One of the big problems is we don’t have a place to play, and people don’t come out and support live music.” Lenigan said.

However, on that day, the seats were packed. With only 723 seats, they have more than double requests for seating.

YSO began with “Jazz Pizzicato,” composed by Leroy Anderson, followed by “Jazz Legato,” an accompanying piece. They ended these dashing pieces with “Fiddle Faddle,” based on the childhood nursery song “Three Blind Mice,” bringing the audience in for an exciting night.

YCO followed with the Nutcracker Suite, showcasing commonly heard songs like the “Valse des felurs” (Waltz of the Flowers) composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. They were accompanied by dancers Gillan Samarco and Elise Aksenov for some of the “Danses caractéristiques,” like “Danse Chinoise (Chinese Dance)”.

Afterward came the audience sing-along, where the entire YOF played.They sang Christmas favorites like “Joy to the World” by Bing Crosby. There was a camaraderie felt by many of the students there such as Octavia Burns, a senior and cello player for the YPO.

“I just love how it’s its own, like, separate organization for a bunch of kids who love to play in an orchestra setting,” Burns said. “Here, everyone’s on the same page and you can just make such wonderful music together. It’s really awesome.”

Finally, YPO came to the stage and played popular renditions of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, like the “Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy),” arranged by Edward Kennedy “Duke” Elligton.

Then came one of the many striking points of the night, “Rhapsody in Blue” by Jean-Baptiste Doulcet, French pianist and the night’s guest soloist.

The piece began with the looming sound of the clarinet, followed by trombone, until the strong touch of the piano came in to become one of the many powerhouse instruments played. A twist in the piece was Doulcet’s use of improvisation.

“The piano and the orchestra have a kind of a dialogue and sometimes meet each other. So I improvise some pieces inside, where I will create music in the moment,” Doulcet said. “And for me, this is really liberating. It’s kind of going against any stress into something really playful.”

In the final section of the night, the YPO played pieces from the soundtrack of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” composed by John Williams, a student favorite and a long-requested piece.

In the end, after receiving a wonderful performance, a musical spirit clung to the air between the audience and the orchestra.

More information about YOOF can be found on their website.