2005-2006

Matthew Auyoung, cello
A four-year member of the Oakland Youth Orchestra (OYO), Matthew Auyoung currently holds the first chair of the OYO cello section. He has been a devout member of OYO since the eighth grade and is a past winner of the OYO Concerto Competition. At the ages of four and five, he began his studies of the violin and piano under Stevie Corcos and Mona Sills, respectively. In the 7th grade, Matthew began his studies of the cello under Milly Rosner, his current teacher, in lieu of the violin. He is also a long-time piano student of Betty Woo. Come Fall of 2006, Matthew will attend UC Davis to pursue a major in genetics. Though he aspires to be a physician, he hopes to continually grow as a musician throughout his life.

Leslie Chiang, clarinet
Leslie Chiang is finishing her first and only year in OYO. She has been playing clarinet for eight years, the last three of which have been under the teaching of Karen Hoexter. Leslie has been senior drum major of the Mission San Jose High School marching band for two years and was accepted into the California Band Directors Association All-State Honor Band in 2005 and 2006.She would like to thank her parents, brother and OYO alumnus Homer, and Karen for supporting her in her music, and all of OYO for providing a great year of musical development. Leslie will be attending UC Berkeley in the fall to major in Molecular and Cell Biology and intends to keep playing clarinet.

Tim Duff, bass
Tim Duff has been a member of OYO for the past two years. He previously played with the Berkeley Youth Orchestra, and is currently also the principal bassist for the Berkeley High School Orchestra. His bass teacher is Damon Smith and he has performed with Damon’s bass octet, The Transbass Ensemble, at the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco. Tim has performed “Taxi” by Joelle Leandre at the Transbay Skronkathon, played with improvisational ensembles at 21 Grand, and sung with the Cardew Choir in performances at the Pauline Oliveros 70th Birthday Retrospective and at Jonathan Segel’s Signal Flow concert at Mills College. He enjoys installing operating systems in his spare time, and plans to attend Chico State as a music major in the fall.

Lauren Gerchow, viola
Lauren Gerchow has been a member of OYO for the past year and a half and previously played with the New Jersey Youth Symphony. Last summer she played in a quintet at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Currently Lauren studies viola with Patrick Kroboth. She will graduate from Saint Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco this June as a lifetime member of the California Scholarship Federation. While at SI Lauren founded and led the United Students Against Sweatshops chapter and served as President of the Social Justice Club. She also studied for a summer in San Jose, Costa Rica, and attended the National Teen Leadership Conference in Washington, DC. Lauren will attend Columbia University in the fall. In her spare time she enjoys playing with her two daschunds, Jenna and Chester, visiting planetariums and playing Nintendo with friends.

Jessica Huntsman, oboe & eng horn
Jessie has been a member of OYO for three years and plays the English Horn. She is also a member of the Diablo Wind Symphony and has been a member of the MDUSD Honor band for five years. She currently studies with Ruth Stuart in Berkeley. She is graduating from Northgate High School and will be attending the University of California Santa Barbara next year to study with Stuart Horn as a music performance major. There she plans to enjoy the beach and learn how to surf and maybe get a little music in. Jessica has been playing Oboe for 6 years and English Horn for 4. She was a Northgate cheerleader for four years and has been a member of Northgate’s Dance Production class for the past two years, after attending San Francisco Ballet school for a summer. She would like to thank her family for all the support and especially her mom for nagging her to practice and make reeds every day. Going to Australia with OYO was one of the best memories she has had. Jessie will miss her close friends Courtney Nippa, Tim Hsu and Andrew Wilson next year.

Raymond Kim, violin
Raymond Kim has been in OYO for 4 years and he has studied under Heghine Boloyan for 11 years. He began playing in orchestras in 8th grade, starting with BYO, and then somehow got into OYO his freshman year. He tried the Berkeley High Orchestra for a year, but stopped because he wanted more sleep. Raymond went on the Australia and New Zealand Tour, where he attempted (and failed miserably) to get an Australian accent. In his free time, He enjoys swimming for BHS, tearing down the mountain (and crashing) on his mountain bike, snowboarding, and dazzling himself with his own cooking. Raymond will be graduating from Berkeley High finally after 4 years of 40 minute commutes, and will be going to UC Santa Cruz as a biochemistry and molecular biology major. He hopes to go to UCSF for dental school and become a orthodontist. He would like for fellow members to send their kids to him for braces. Raymond would like to thank his violin teacher for threatening him with a wooden cooking spoon so that he would practice.

Carolyn Kwok, oboe
Carolyn Kwok has been a member of OYO for three years and had the good fortune of participating in the Australia/New Zeland tour. After a brief stint with the clarinet, she decided to pick up the oboe at the age of eleven, although she still can’t remember the reasons why, and has been studying with Terri Knight ever since. Throughout her time at Monte Vista High School, Carolyn has served as the principle oboist in the wind ensemble and was awarded the US Achievement Academy National Band Award. She has also played the piano for fourteen years. In addition to her various musical activities, she is a member of the California Scholarship Federation and the National Honor Society, and is an officer of the Link Crew Club. Carolyn will be majoring in Bioengineering at UC Berkeley in the fall, where she plans to continue tooting on the oboe.

Dennis Lam, viola
Dennis Lam has been a member of OYO for five years, joining the same year he began his studies under his current teacher, Edmund Weingart. He plays the most sonorous and technically-advanced musical instrument ever known to mankind: the viola. Dennis’s favorite foods include chicken pot pie, shrimp tempura, pigs in a blanket, hot dogs, corn dogs, corn bread, bacon, doughnuts, onion rings, french fries, fried chicken, fried fish, fried eggs, and anything that contains chocolate. To keep himself healthy enough to enjoy these foods on a regular basis without suffering from heart disease, he rows for the Oakland Strokes. Dennis is also an Eagle Scout and likes to go trail running and mountain biking in the great outdoors. After graduating from Piedmont High School, he will begin his studies towards becoming either a mechanical or an electrical engineer. Dennis’s dream is for a humanoid robot to be entered in, and win, the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He will be attending the California Institute of Technology this fall.

Victoria Lau, french horn
Victoria Lau was born into a tone-deaf family and decided to pick up the French horn at the age of 14 just for kicks. She decided to audition for OYO after receiving a mysterious phone call from Barbara asking her to audition. Surprisingly, Victoria got in and has been in OYO for two years now and is currently the Principle Horn player. She has participated in the Young Musicians Program for four years and currently studies with Susan Vollmer. Besides French horn, Victoria has also been playing piano and jazz piano for a very long time, also, just for kicks. She will attempt to write an eight- movement symphony piece one day for a 300-member orchestra with 20 French horns. Aside from music, Victoria loves acrobatics and recently twisted her ankle in an attempt to do a front tuck, which she still can’t do today. She hopes to be able to do a backflip and a back handspring on the Great Wall of China one day without falling off and dying. In her spare time, Victoria enjoys volunteering at the SF/SPCA, reading books and actually finishing them, juggling (she is working on juggling FIVE balls), and playing the French horn early in the morning to wake up the neighbors. Victoria will be graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco this June, and will be heading off to UC Davis this fall where her new best friend will be a cow named Betsy. She hopes to major in some sort of engineering and perhaps minor in Music, again, just for kicks.

Adam Louie, trumpet
Adam Louie has been a member of the Oakland Youth Orchestra for the past one and a half years, and started trumpet at the age of nine. He is currently playing lead trumpet in the Albany High School Jazz Band and Albany High School’s rhythm and blues band, “Rhythm Bound” and sits principal chair with the Albany High School Concert Band. Owen Miyoshi has taught Adam since the age of eleven, and encouraged him to attend the Young Musicians Program during the summer of 2004. He has been with the program ever since. Some of his most memorable moments have been playing at Yoshi’s Jazz Club three times, one of which was with the YMP Big Band and Bluenote sextet. Adam plans to attend the University of California Santa Cruz where he has received a musical scholarship to further develop his interest in playing the trumpet.

Courtney Nippa, flute
Courtney Nippa is a four-year survivor of OYO. She has played with them the Junior Bach Festival and on their 2004 tour of Australia and New Zealand where she became notorious for her bad luck due to a trip in an ambulance and a lost passport. However she returned in one piece to finish out her years at College Park High School in Pleasant Hill and co-win this year’s OYO concerto competition. She has been accepted to the University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music and would like the public to know that this does not mean that she is a spoiled child. There she will study flute performance with Gary Woodward. She takes away fond memories of all those she has met through OYO and will always keep the bay area in her heart.

Mäneka Puligandla, percussion
Mäneka Puligandla, currently the timpanist, has been in OYO for three years. She is the co-founder and captain of her school’s undefeated Clean Plate Club Varsity Eating team and although she is an ardent meat lover, she remains a loyal member of the Vegetarian Club. Mäneka has an unnatural fondness for pigeons, both live and cooked, and enjoys cooking and eating all sorts of delectable comestibles. Her other interests include Russia, late night runs to Yogurt Park, Chia Pets (especially ones being sold in front of Mt. Rushmore), 7-11 for its quality foods and Slurpees, Boulevard restaurant, running, paper dolls, and fording the river in Oregon Trail even though the oxen always die. Mäneka appreciates the opportunities her many music teachers have provided her, allowing her to dabble in such a wide variety of musical instruments. Though Mäneka is not sure of her future academic and career goals, she is certain that she will continue her quest for true love at Oberlin College.

Alicia Tan, violin
Alicia Tan has been a member of OYO for the past 4 years, and was extremely fortunate to have had the chance to travel to Australia and New Zealand with the orchestra in the summer of 2004. She started playing the violin when she was 8 years old, and the piano when she was 5. For four years, from 1998 to 2001, she vigorously practiced the violin and studied music theory as she prepared for Certificate of Merit. In the summer of 2002, she participated in a summer music program at the Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon where she played in various chamber music groups on both the piano and violin, and learned a few intriguing tidbits about playing jazz. She enjoys listening to jazz and hopes to learn how to play it someday. In June, Alicia will be graduating from Alameda High School where she has taken numerous AP classes, has been on the school’s Honor Roll several times, and tutors in various subjects such as biology and math for the AVID class at her school. For the past year, she has been a student volunteer at Kaiser of Oakland where she provides general information for visitors and patients, and works in the volunteer gift shop. Aside from music and school, Alicia enjoys skiing (even if she can’t ski very well), playing computer games (such as the Sims), hiking, learning new languages, knitting, traveling, and playing fetch with her two dogs, Nike and Belle. She also enjoys playing with her chubby, 12-year-old cat named Clifford. This fall, Alicia will attend UC Berkeley where she plans to major in the Biological Sciences and hopes to continue playing the piano and violin. Furthermore, she would like to thank her family for their undying support in all of her musical and academic endeavors.

Andrew Wilson, violin
Andrew Wilson has been in OYO for 4 years, finishing out his time with the orchestra as concert master. He started playing the violin while nearly still in the womb with the Suzuki music program, and is currently studying with Linda Wang of UOP. He is graduating from Granada High School in Livermore, but spent too much of his time there flaunting himself in a speedo on the water polo and swimming teams to join the high school orchestra. Besides all that, he stayed active in Boy Scouts and earned the Eagle rank the day before his 18th birthday. Andrew’s love of frolicking about in swimwear will continue in the fall when he will attend UC Santa Barbara and study the art of sun-tanning until he can pick a major. He would like to thank his mother for the endless nagging that forcibly persuaded him to practice and to his sister for helping with the dishes when he couldn’t because he was ‘practicing.’

Whitney Wu-Chu, violin
Whitney Wu-Chu started playing the violin and piano at the age of 5. She joined OYO her freshman year and participated in the Australia/New Zealand tour in the summer of 2004. She skipped one year of OYO, but came back for her senior year. She will be graduating from Albany High School. She is also an alumnus of the French American International High School (IHS) where she played in orchestra pits of musicals and operas and was Manager of the Theater Box for three years. While at AHS this year, she is Treasurer of the Chamber Music Club. She spent part of her 2004 summer in New Hampshire at the Apple Hill Chamber Music Center and 2005 summer in New York coaching beginning violinist age 10 and under at the Strad Music Camp. In addition to music, Whitney has devoted her spare time to studio art. The International Asian Art Society has selected pieces of her artwork for exhibition and publication. Whitney has been active in her church as a choir member and Chair of the Mission and Outreach committee. She also volunteered at hospitals and community organizations and served as a peer tutor at school. Whitney loves math and recived an Excellence in Math award at IHS. She has been on the Principal’s Honor Roll a number of times, received an Excellence in Music award, been a MUN conference delegate, and taken many AP and IB courses. A recipient of the California Alumni Association Leadership Scholarship, Whitney will attend UC Berkeley and plans to major in Molecular Toxicology and minor in Music Therapy hoping someday she could use her music and art talents in treating her patients. She would like to thank all who have helped her with her music: her violin teacher, Wei He, and other music teachers; her sister, Christine; and, especially, her mom who encouraged her to continue music when it got difficult.

Noah Yaffe, violin
Noah Yaffe has studied violin since an early age, has been in OYO for two years, is first chair trumpet of Granada High School Symphonic Band, involved in voice study and has soloed in many events and recitals throughout the years in all these facets of music. Other utterly impressive accomplishments include the rank of Brown first-degree in Karate, sweepstakes winner of Science Odyssey, Mock Trial lawyer and last-minute fill-in witness, the passing of many AP tests, lead role in an operatic production, exercising extreme modesty and being recognized as an “overall good person” by several others. Noah has also been told off by Michael Morgan on various occasions and recently received a death threat from the esteemed conductor over an innocent question about crescendo placement. Next fall, Noah will be studying Bioengineering at UCSD with a minor in music. He will be tenderly missed by a couple of OYO members.

Sophia Zhang, violin
Having been an Oakland Youth Orchestra member for four years, Sophia Zhang is one of the “oldbie” members who spent the summer of 2004 rocking out to Prokofiev’s Death of Tybalt on the Australia/New Zealand tour. Starting at the age of six, Sophia has been playing the violin ever since and is the current Concertmistress of her high school orchestra at Clayton Valley. She has won numerous of violin competitions such as receiving first place three times in the annual Contra Costa Strings Association finals in the elementary, junior, and senior divisions. In addition to Sophia’s musical achievement, she is also strong in academics, winning multiple Department awards in Math and Music as well as Excellence awards in English, Science, and Social Sciences. Active in her high school, Sophia is the co-president of the California Scholarship Federation club and treasurer of both the Junior State of America club and Senior Women club. In her spare time, she has volunteered at the Mount Diablo Hospital in the Critical Care Unit and is currently volunteering at her local community library. Sophia Zhang will be attending UC Berkeley in the fall, majoring in Integrative Biology.