Melodies from Rachmaninoff’s second symphony filled the vaulted GodSpeak Calvary Chapel sanctuary on a recent Sunday evening as young musicians earned a standing ovation from the concert-goers.
In 2021, local orchestra conductor Alexander Tseitlin and his wife founded the California Young Artists Symphony (CYAS), a pre-professional orchestra. They gathered talented high school and college-age musicians from an area spanning Long Beach to Santa Barbara to play concerts like this one. CYAS offers students a taste of professional playing and the opportunity to connect with established professionals in the industry.
The group drew a full house for their inaugural performance at Los Padres in November and another enthusiastic audience for their February 13 performance in Newbury Park, where Rachmaninoff was on the bill.
“We are so happy for how it’s kicked off and super-positive and grateful for how well it’s been going,” Tseitlin says of the new program. “It was neat to see the Ventura County/Conejo Valley area kids go above and beyond even in this tough year and jump into this level.”
Musicians accepted into CYAS keep an abbreviated rehearsal schedule — just four Saturday mornings of rehearsal for each concert — and perform three full-length symphonies a year. This distinguishes them from typical youth orchestras that perform partial symphonies just twice a year. In addition, Tseitlin invites different professional conductors to lead the orchestra at each performance, giving his students exposure to and connections with professional musicians.
Throughout the CYAS training process, Tseitlan says the amateurs undergo a mindset shift as they begin to see themselves less as students and more as musicians capable of producing a valuable sound.
“That change is so rewarding to see,” Tseitlin says. “They realize they can now put together a full program in one short set of rehearsals, which is what professionals do. … It helps them to believe in their craft, and a lot of the doubt about ‘Can I do this? Can I succeed in music?’ leaves their mind. That reflects in their playing. Their playing is better, and more confident, and more artistic and more personal.”
Tseitlin, born in San Diego to Russian immigrant parents and into a musical heritage, grew up playing the violin and hearing stories of famous artists coming to his grandad’s house in Russia to play cards after performances. His grandfather conducted at the Bolshoi theater in Moscow. Tseitlin joined the American Youth Symphony, attended UCLA where he met his wife, and developed as a multi-instrumentalist. The two eventually settled in the Conejo Valley, where Tseitlin now directs the Conejo Valley Youth Orchestra, composes music and leads CYAS.
“By far, the most rewarding thing has been teaching and working with the kids and investing in this community,” the father of three says. “And this orchestra just seemed like a natural next step and the right time for it.”
Tseitlin says CYAS musicians possess the ability and desire to pour their hearts and souls into the music with a sense of vulnerable trust within the group. This allows them to express themselves together beautifully.
“They’re here because they know every person believes in the process, and the value of creativity and creation, and what it takes to essentially lay your heart bare on the stage, and all the risk inherent in doing so,” he says. “So when you see this symphony perform, you really see an electrifying orchestra because everyone believes a hundred percent in what they’re doing.”
“You really see an electrifying orchestra because everyone believes a hundred percent in what they’re doing.”
To the founder, that cohesion makes CYAS worthwhile.
“To really create something artistic is such a personal and costly wager,” he says. “To genuinely create art every time we are together, that is the most rewarding thing because I have gone all over the world looking for it. … To have it in my own backyard here in Conejo Valley is really something. That’s what I look forward to maybe the most, every time I see these musicians.”
