American Youth Symphony Tickets

Details of American Youth Symphony and the Ticket Luck value

American Youth Symphony
American Youth Sympony has attained a reputation as one of the nation's most prestigious artistic institutions for young people. AYS was founded in 1959, and organized in its current form in 1964 by famed conductor Mehli Mehta and founder Mildreth Sheinkopf Samson.

It is a rigorous training program for some of the country's best pre-professional musical artists and one of Southern California's most honored cultural treasures.

Under the musical directions of Mehta and Alexander Treger , AYS continues to flourish and nurture young musicians while holding them to the very highest artistic standards.

Mehli Mehta's involvement in music stemmed from his birth in 1908 in Bombay, India. When he was a young violinist, his main musical influence and inspiration was Jascha Heifetz.

Jascha Heifetz was a pioneering figure in the Indian musical world who founded the Bombay Symphony Orchestra in 1935. In 1940 Mr. Mehta founded the Bombay String Quartet and in 1955, he moved to England. Mehta served for five years as Assistant Concertmaster and Concertmaster of the Halle Orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli.

Mehli moved to Los Angeles and was appointed Director of the Orchestra Department at UCLA from 1964 to 1976. Soon after his appointment, he organized the American Youth Symphony with students from all the universities in the city.

He was highly acclaimed when he appeared as conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1978, 1980, 1982 and 1984. Under his dedicated leadership the orchestra grew to its current size of 110 young musicians.

Mehta led the orchestra until its 34th season in 1998. In addition, he conducted the RIAS Berlin, Israel, Tokyo, Yokohama, Jerusalem, Venezuela and Brazil Symphonies; the Israel Sinfonietta.

Maestro Mehta received the Governor's Award for the Arts of the California Arts Council: the Magnum Opus Award of the University of Southern California; the American String Teachers Award; the Award of Merit from the Mayor and Council of Los Angeles; and the Zoroastrian Association of California's Honorable Award.

Also can not go unnoticed are the contributions made by Alexander Treger. This noted violinist, accomplished conductor in AYS. As the successor to Mehli Mehta, Alexander is only the second conductor to lead the ensemble since its inception.

A musician of many interests and talents, Treger has served as Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1985. He guest conducted the Turku Philharmonic in Finland in 2001, 2002, and 2003, and stepped in at the last minute to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Treger has also appeared as guest conductor with the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, California's Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra, the New World Symphony and the Santa Monica Symphony.

Alexander Treger has won high praise for his numerous solo performances with the orchestra at the Music Center and the Hollywood Bowl.

Some of them are concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Bartok, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Shostakovich, and Prokofieff under the direction of Zubin Mehta and many.

During the 2004-2005 season, American Youth Symphony was invited to Carnegie Hall to make their New York Debut as part of their 40th anniversary celebration.

Countless AYS alumni are currently members of some of the finest professional orchestras worldwide. Talent and potential are the only criteria for admittance to the orchestra.