LAS Youth Orchestra
LASYO, a summer orchestra established by the Symphony Association, is open to musicians ages 11 (or in 6th grade) through 21 who play violin, viola, cello, string bass, flute, piccolo, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bassoon, saxophone, horn, trumpet, trombone, euphonium, tuba, harp, timpani, or percussion (and possible harp).
General Information
Auditions:
- Applicants will be asked to submit a letter of recommendation from a music teacher addressing the student’s readiness for playing in an orchestra setting. Optionally, students can submit a two-minute video audition demonstrating their skills.
Registration Application:
Click here to complete and submit your audition application.
*Audition Registration due by May 1st.
Rehearsals:
- Every Tuesday & Thursday from 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm. June 23rd – July 28th at the Bothwell Arts Center, Livermore.
- Dress Rehearsal 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm, July 31st at First Presbyterian Church in Livermore.
Concert:
- Concert, Saturday, August 1st, 7:00 pm, also at First Presbyterian Church.
- There will be a reception in the courtyard.
Tuition:
- $300 per student.
- Scholarships and Family Discount available.
- High School graduates and above are free.
- Tuition due by June 23rd.
Bill Harrington
Dr. Bill Harrington has been Music Director and Conductor for the East Bay Youth Orchestras (EBYO) in residence at Cal-State East Bay since 2015. Known to his students as “Dr. Bill,” he is a longtime music educator and professional French horn player in the Bay Area. As a music educator, he served two terms as President of the California Orchestra Directors Association (CODA), and conducted or chaired over 65 district and state honor orchestras across the state including SCMEA, CMEA, ACSI, and most recently West Contra Costa County Honor Orchestras. An Adjunct Lecturer at Cal State University East Bay, Dr. Bill teaches classes in music education, and conducts field supervision for music credential candidates in the schools. As a professional musician, he has performed on the French horn with virtually every professional orchestra in the greater Bay Area. He currently plays with the Modesto Symphony, the Brassworks of San Francisco Brass Quintet and Band, and most recently with Opera San Jose, the Bay Philharmonic, Lamplighters Operetta Company, and Livermore Valley Opera.
Dr. Harrington graduated with a four-year full scholarship from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and holds an M.A. in Music from California State University, East Bay, along with a California Lifetime Teaching Credential in Music. He graduated from Boston University with a Doctorate in Music Education. Following his dissertation, “Collaborative learning among high school students in a chamber music setting,” Dr. Harrington has been a strong advocate for chamber music and is Director of the Sequoia Chamber Music Workshop every summer at Cal Poly Humboldt. Dr. Bill resides in Oakland with his wife, Hannah (cello/piano) and two daughters, Sarah and Rachel (violin/viola) where he is also Music Director at Patten Academy and Minister of Music at Christian Cathedral, both in Oakland.
Robert Huntington
Robert Huntington is a Livermore native and has served as the Director of Instrumental Music at Mendenhall Middle School since 2022. He also is the current Director and Vice President of the Pleasanton Community Concert Band, and has served as the Winds & Percussion Director for LASYO in previous years. His performance experience is quite varied, having experience in large orchestras, wind ensembles, New Orleans-style brass bands, and small chamber groups. He stays active as a performer on his primary instrument, the tuba, in the Pleasanton Community Concert Band and other local/regional ensembles.
In addition to performing, Robert is also an award-winning composer. He won the 2020 Oklahoma Youth Winds Composition Competition with the first movement of his suite for band, which is slated to be premiered later this year. Today he stays active as a composer primarily by composing for his students. Huntington earned his Bachelor of Music in Music Composition in 2020 and earned his Master of Music in Music Education in 2022, both from University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music. He is thrilled to return to LASYO, after performing in the ensemble as a tuba player during high school and later with the Livermore-Amador Symphony.
Performances and Personnel
Betsy Hausburg has served as LASYO program coordinator since the youth orchestra’s first summer, 2009. Göran Berg and Bob Williams were the conductors that year, when LASYO’s first season culminated with a concert on August 1 at the First Presbyterian Church in Livermore. From 2010 through 2015, Berg and Kathy Boster were codirectors of LASYO. Berg and Don Adkins were codirectors from 2016 through 2021. Jed da Roza joined them as assistant director in 2018 and 2019, and Sammie Flanzbaum joined as winds and percussion director in 2021 and 2022, assisted in 2022 by Lieven Smart. In 2023, Robert Huntington became winds and percussion director, with Don Adkins the music director and Göran Berg the strings director. Adkins and Huntington returned for the 2024 season, and Adkins was the conductor in 2025.
See the 2025 concert program and watch a video of the concert on YouTube. The video was filmed and edited by the family of Eugene Baker.
A free public concert on the evening of Saturday July 27, 2024, began promptly at 7 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church in Livermore. See the 2024 concert program and a video of the concert taken by parents of one of the violin players at the request of Don Adkins. A concert at the church on Saturday July 29, 2023, was presented at 7 p.m. to a full house; see the 2023 concert program. The concert on July 23, 2022, included music by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Khachaturian, Hérold, and Robert Smith; see the 2022 concert program. The 2021 concert was on July 31 and featured the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, “Fratres” by Arvo Pärt with concertmaster Isaiah Iny-Woods as violin soloist, “Arabian Dances” by Brian Balmages, and more. The concert ended with Mayhew Lake’s “The Roosters Lay Eggs in Kansas” with the audience plus the LASYO musicians singing along! See the 2021 concert program.
(LASYO for 2020 was cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.) The 2019 LASYO concert, on August 3, included pieces by Bizet, Debussy, Mozart, Sibelius — and Led Zeppelin. See the 2019 concert program. The 2018 LASYO concert was on the evening of August 4. See the 2018 concert program.
The 2017 LAS Youth Orchestra, led by Don Adkins and Göran Berg.
The 2017 season of LASYO culminated with a free public performance on July 22 at the First Presbyterian Church of Livermore. Repertoire included pieces by Beethoven, Bizet, Haydn, McLean, Piazzolla, and Shostakovich. See the 2017 concert program, and read an article by Carol Graham published on 7/20/17 in the Independent newspaper.
The 2016 LASYO concert was on August 6; see the 2016 LASYO concert program. The 2015 LASYO concert was on Saturday August 8 in Livermore. See videos of the concert, and see the 2015 concert program. Watch videos of the August 9, 2014, LASYO concert on YouTube; and read the 2014 concert program. See the August 10, 2013, concert program and the August 11, 2012, concert program.
The 2011 concert took place on Saturday August 6 and included the “Saturday Night Waltz” and “Hoedown” from Copland’s Rodeo (video, 5:09 minutes long); scene number 1 from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake (video, 3:23 min.); Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” (video, 8:39 min.); waltz number 2 from Shostakovich’s suite for variety orchestra (video, 4:13 min.); and Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1” (video with acknowledgements, encore, and orchestra list, 12:56 min.). Read the 2011 concert program.
The 2010 LASYO concert was on Saturday July 31. See the 2010 concert program, and have a look at several of the concert pieces on YouTube: The “Radetzky March” by Strauss was conducted by Kathy Boster, and “Andante Festivo” by Sibelius was conducted by Göran Berg. The concert concluded with “Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1” by Elgar and conducted by Berg; it featured Janet Holmes playing the church’s Casavant Frères pipe organ.
