ICYOLA 15th Anniversary Finale Program

Dear Friends, Thank you for joining us for our 15th Season Finale Concert today. We are very grateful for your support.

This has been our best year yet. We have celebrated a great concert season – with full orchestra performances for our Season Opening Concert at Holy Name of Jesus Church; the first ever Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration in the City of El Segundo; an MLK Day performance at the California African-American Museum; a concert at Holman United Methodist Church featuring United States Senator Raphael Warnock as speaker; performances at Rolling Hills United Methodist Church; and a host of performances with smaller ensembles for great events like the Urban League Gala and other such festivals. In addition to our performances, we started a Drum Corps program this year that debuted at our Season Opening Concert, and has made numerous appearances this season, including their debut performance today at Disney Hall. The Drum Corps program has also been engaged with the County of Los Angeles Probation Department to provide services in the County’s Juvenile Hall facilities. This is the first such program like this in the nation, and we hope to make it a model for serving young students who are in need of diverting to a positive path.

But perhaps most significantly, this year, we have received a grant from the State of California that has allowed us to purchase a building. The site – 2045 West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard – is currently a neighborhood market, that will soon be renovated into our rehearsal and administrative headquarters. Please drive by and take a look, and plan now to attend our grand opening around this time next year in the newly renovated facility. We are indebted to California State Senator Steven Bradford for sponsoring the legislation that made this grant a reality. Thank you Senator Bradford – more than words can say!

In addition, we are indebted to Maryann Garger, Ryan Suffern, Christopher Stoudt, and Moonage Daydream Productions for the new documentary film “The Orchestra Chuck Built.” This film – the story of our orchestra – debuted at the Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride, Colorado in May where it won the Audience Choice Award for Short Films. It is now scheduled for screenings at a number of film festivals around the world. This is exposure for us that cannot be bought. So thank you Maryann, Ryan, Chris and the team. I hope that all who are reading this message will see the film and share it with others.

We are planning a full Season for 2023-24. Please see the advertisement for that Season on the following pages of this program.

Thank you again for being with us today, and for your consistent, loyal support.

Los Angeles has been at the epicenter of creative flourishing within the arts for the last fifteen years. So much so, that not even a global pandemic, nor a growing population of quelled unhoused persons could stop it. I would argue that the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (“ICYOLA”) is the most outstanding example of this era’s creative flourishing, and we should be justifiably proud of its many accomplishments.

The Orchestra began nearly 15 years ago at a very propitious time in the city’s life. Our identity crisis as a city posed the serious question of what kind of urban space we wanted to be. Not only have we now settled on the highest level of diversity attainable, we also turned sharply to the arts, for resolution of these eternal questions about our place under the sun. The Orchestra contributed to and benefited directly from this art approach and the huge influx of new talent and new wealth that flowed into this city from both inside the U.S. and abroad, most notably West Africa. The artistic opportunities emergent in L.A., both attracted and uncovered an immense wealth of talent within our community that has been present since the Great Migration of the early 1920s. The 21st century has influenced all intersections within the creative arts. From the hip, classical scene at Disney Hall (ICYOLA), to dance (Lula Washington Dance/Debbie Allen Dance), theatre, painting (Kehinde Wiley), fashion, and new film sub-genres (Pan African Film Festival), Los Angeles is the undeniable art capital of the world.

ICYOLA has an unparalleled collective of community supporters, from annual Disney Hall attendees, which follow the Orchestra throughout its entire season, to The National MLK Memorial in D.C., to The Getty, to The Holy Name of Jesus Church, to The NFL and YouTube Theatre. This fan base includes financial donors, subscribers and ticketholders, a throng of family foundations, and patrons of the arts who love music, and are able to relate to being young, gifted, and Black!

We can all salute Charles Dickerson and the leadership of ICYOLA for this remarkable accomplishment 15 years later, ICYOLA has achieved an amazing accomplishment. The Orchestra has acquired a physical home, a building that will become a new “Conservatory” for our community, on MLK Jr. Boulevard. By this time next year, we hope to see you again at our 2024 Season Finale Concert at Disney Hall, with the new ICYOLA headquarters fully occupied and operational. It will have a rehearsal space, practice rooms, a music library, and storage space for our future musicians to use. It will be a new hub for the arts near Leimert Park, a teaching center for aesthetes and musicians, a scaffold of learning for the art-deprived, an elixir of hope for the underserved, and the standard of excellence for yet another era of human flourishing in the City of Angels.

ICYOLA Board of Directors

J. Stanley Sanders, Esq., Chair Earl Wooten, Treasurer Sandra Goldsmith Bennett Hansonia Caldwell, Ph.D. Charles Dickerson III

Jazmin Morales James Montgomery Jonathan Weedman Marcus Wilson-Smith

We have planned a Full Season for 2023-2024, a season that will feature lots of choral music. Please plan now to join us – either in the audience, or come and join our chorus! Call our offices for more information.

2023 PERFORMANCES

Sunday, October 8 - Hymns Concert at Holman United Methodist Church Sunday, November 19 – Season Opener at Marsee Auditorium, El Camino College Featuring Special Guests – The Angel City Chorale and a Tribute to Kenneth Brown

Saturday, December 16 - Christmas Concert at Rolling Hills United Methodist Church Featuring Handel’s Messiah, Part I

2024 PERFORMANCES

Saturday, January 13 - MLK Day Concert Monday, January 15 - MLK Day – Parade & Concert at The California African-American Museum Friday, March 29 - Good Friday Concert at Rolling Hills United Methodist Church Featuring Handel’s Messiah, Part II

Sunday, April 7 – Post-Easter Sunday Concert at Rolling Hills United Methodist Church Featuring Handel’s Messiah, Part III

Summer 2024 – ICYOLA at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Featuring West Side Story Dances, Bernstein Porgy and Bess, by George Gershwin

WHO IS ICYOLA?

ICYOLA is a nonprofit organization that provides high-quality music and literacy education to young people in Inner City Los Angeles, empowering them to succeed academically and professionally. Since its beginning in 2009, ICYOLA has helped young people discover and develop their musical talents, leading to increased self-confidence, improved academic performance, and more excellent opportunities for success. ICYOLA is committed to creating an inclusive and supportive community for young people of all races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds who are passionate about music and learning.

MISSION STATEMENT

To cultivate musical expression as a vehicle for personal development, and to bring to fruition the full musical and academic potential of young inner city residents of Los Angeles, Chicago and South Africa.

ICYOLA PROGRAMS ICYOLA Orchestra

Through the ICYOLA Orchestra Program, we present an annual Concert Season of 8-10 concerts that features both the standard orchestral repertoire and contemporary music that resounds within the community from which ICYOLA emanates and that it serves. That Concert Season concludes each year with a Season Finale at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The ICYOLA boasts approximately 125 members aged 10 and above.

Drum Corps

A music education program that provides youth with an opportunity to gain pre-professional percussion training. Learn the fundamentals of drumming, reading music, and musicianship. Practice and learn various drumline styles and techniques as a group.

Accepting beginning to advanced drummers!

South Los Angeles Music Project

The South Los Angeles Music Project – known as “SLAM” – is a program that offers basic music appreciation and understanding to young persons living in the South Los Angeles quadrant encompassed by the 10, 710 and 405 Freeways. Participants in this program are offered beginning music instruction both on instruments and through voice. This program is funded through a generous grant from the County of Los Angeles Probation Department.

South Side Chicago Youth Orchestra

The South Side Chicago Youth Orchestra first formed during the summer of 2019 on the campus of Chicago State University. It emerged from a collaboration with Kenwood Academy, After School Matters and other partners in Chicago. It presented its first concert at the South Shore Cultural Center during August 2019, and continues in development.

WHO WE SERVE

We serve approximately 250 young people aged 10-35 each year, and our constituents (including the musicians who participate in our program and their families, those who attend our concerts, and others) number about 5,000. Approximately 75% of the youth in our programs are African-American; about 20% are Latino; and the remaining self identify as another ethnicity or race. Please visit our website at www.icyola.org to learn more about us.

GOAL

To teach young people in Los Angeles, Chicago, South Africa and other urban cities the great music of the world, provide opportunities for them to perform that music in some of the greatest settings of the world, and prepare them for opportunities to play in major American orchestras.

OBJECTIVE

To learn and perform the great orchestral literature of the world, and equip minority youth, especially African-American and Latino youth, with the tools needed to join major American orchestras; and to present those young people to those orchestras as candidates

STEVEN BRADFORD | STATE SENATOR Steven Bradford brings a lifetime of experience to the California Legislature. In over two decades of public service – first as a Gardena City Councilmember, then as a State Assemblymember and now as a State Senator. Senator Bradford is the Vice Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus and the Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications. He also serves on the Committee on Public Safety. He is the author of Senate Bill 2, which established California’s first statewide police decertification process.

Bradford grew up in Gardena, where he resides to this day.

Sunday, July 9, 2023 – 3pm Walt Disney Concert Hall - Los Angeles, CA Overture to Candide by Leonard Bernstein COMMUNITY IMPACT AWARD - CA State Senator Steven Bradford Adagietto, from Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler Piano Concerto No. 1 in Bb minor op. 23 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Featuring Soloist: Terrance Wilson INTERMISSION Drum Corps Performance Tribute to Otis William & the Temptations Featuring Vocalists: Byron Dodson, Jerel Duren, Phylicia Hill, Rikayah Crawford, Skyler Raye Pugh,Trijean Wilkins LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD- Otis Williams Act. IV: Finale, Swan Lake op. 20 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Dr. Otis Clayborn Williams, founding member of the world-renowned, Grammy Award-winning group, The Temptations, is a music legend. From award-winning singer, songwriter to critically acclaimed author, from television producer, and Broadway executive producer to executive producer of the group’s new album, Temptations 60, Dr. Williams defied all odds, having gone from the dirt roads of rural Texas to the highest heights of Detroit, Motown, and beyond.

One of the world’s most significant and prolific musical institutions of all time, The Temptations are entertainment giants revered for their enduring catalog of music masterpieces. As the sole surviving member of the original Temptations, Dr. Williams is uniquely one of Detroit’s and America’s national treasures.

Dr. Williams has been and still is the chief architect of The Temptations’ evolution throughout the 20th and 21st centuries and he continues to carry the torch forward for the next generation of Temptations’ fans. Celebrating 60+ years at the forefront of The Temptations, and still performing around the world today, he is a global superstar. Dr. Otis Williams received an honorary degree, Doctorate of Humane Letters, from Stillman College, a historically Black college and university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 2006.

Dr. Williams’ personal journey has been documented in his critically acclaimed 1988 autobiography, Temptations, in the Emmy ® award-winning television mini-series, The Temptations, released in 1998, and most recently in the smash hit Broadway musical, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations, which won the 2019 Tony ® Award for Best Choreography. Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations is currently touring across the U.S. this year and next.

The electrifying Broadway musical also opened in the UK, in the West End of London at the Prince Edward Theater, on April 20, 2023.

The Temptations, with millions of fans worldwide, are one of the most iconic, bestselling brands in the entertainment world. Ranked #1 in Billboard magazine’s most recent list of the “Greatest R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of All Time,” The Temptations also appear in the magazine’s 125th Anniversary list of the “125 Greatest of All Time Artists.” In addition, Rolling Stone magazine named the group among the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time.” Among the numerous awards and honors, the group has received five Grammy® Awards, including the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Grammy® Award.

The Temptations delivered Motown’s and their first-ever, GRAMMY® for their song, “Cloud Nine.” They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. “My Girl,” what many may call their magnum opus, was inducted into the Grammy® Hall of Fame in 1998, followed by “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” a year later in 1999. In 2018, the Library of Congress announced the induction of their mega-hit, “My Girl” into the National Recording Registry. Blockbuster #1 chart hits “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me),” “Papa was a Rollin’ Stone,” and “My Girl” are among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.” The Temptations have received more than 50 gold, platinum and multi-platinum awards all combined for their chart hits, many of which are considered American masterpieces.

TERRENCE WILSON | PIANIST Acclaimed by the Baltimore Sun as “one of the biggest pianistic talents to have emerged in this country in the last 25 years” pianist Terrence Wilson has appeared as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Washington, DC (National Symphony), San Francisco, St. Louis, and many more.

An active recitalist, Terrence Wilson made his New York City recital debut at the 92nd Street Y, and his Washington, DC recital debut at the Kennedy Center. In Europe he has given recitals at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, the Lourvre in Paris, and countless other major venues. In the US he has given recitals at Lincoln Center in New York City (both Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall), the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Caramoor Festival in Katonah, NY, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, and for the La Jolla Chamber Music Society.

Terrence Wilson has received numerous awards and prizes, including the SONY ES Award for Musical Excellence, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Juilliard Petschek Award. He has also been featured on several radio and television broadcasts, including NPR’s “Performance Today,” WQXR radio in New York, and programs on the BRAVO Network, the Arts & Entertainment Network, public television, and as a guest on late night network television. In 2011, Wilson was nominated for a Grammy in the category of “Best Instrumental Soloist with an Orchestra” for his (world premiere) recording with the Nashville Symphony conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero of Michael Daugherty’s Deus ex Machina for piano and orchestra - written for Wilson in 2007.

Terrence Wilson is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky. He has also enjoyed the invaluable mentorship of the Romanian pianist and teacher Zitta Zohar. A native of the Bronx, he resides in Montclair, New Jersey. In March 2021, Wilson was appointed to the piano faculty at Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Byron Dodson

VOCALISTS

RHYTHM SECTION Bradford Tidwell

Jerel Duren

Don Brown

Phylicia Hill Rikayah Crawford Skyler Raye Pugh Trijean Wilkins

Isaac Green Wendell Phipps

FLUTES

Marcus Paul

LaVern Antoine

VIOLINCELLOS

Brandon Ramirez

SehnRa Brooks

Namiah Miller

Benton Preciado

Joshua Childress

Stephan Brooks

Raymond Alvarado

Brittany Arredondo

Kiera Banks

William Parada

Simeon Brown

Christine Kivi

Simone Deleon Pina

Circe Diaz Gomero Elijah Brooks Emiko Wong

Leah Marcelle Mackenzie Thomson

TROMBONES

Wynton Grant

Makaiya Bedford

Brianna Aponte

Yuliana Lagunas

Sophia Mercado

Chanelle Davis

Estrella Perez

Jacob Justiss

VIOLIN 2

Jaden Mehrdad

OBOES

Jason Farr

Alex Wayman

Janiyah Fortune

Alfonso Pimentel

Khamalia Williams

Anneke Dean

Kaleb Victor

Neil Cole

Sean Davis

Ashley Molina

Kenechi Fortune

Bella Singh

Myles Yeazell

CLARINETS

BASS TROMBONE

Brenda Leyva

Dwayne Burrell

Nicholas Perez

Britany Perez

STRING BASS

Cameron Davis

Daniel Romo

Darius Dudley

DaQuan Robinson

Faith Manio

Harvey Estrada

Jenni Asher

Isaac Green

Kevon Fortune

Jeremy Wright

Marit Asrat

Natalie Guerra

Matthew Dudley

Nedra Wheeler

Mya Melvin

Trevor Ware

Ednaldo Alves Lex Sasaki

TUBAS

Lyric Mestel

Colin Henderson Huayo Vargas

BASSOONS

Jacqueline Brown

Braxton Porter Kieran Mulligan

PERCUSSION

Rida Wasaf

Aidan Anderson Don Brown

Nadir Williams Nyla Goodjoin

HORNS

Joey Muscat

Ethan de Leon

Kaman Richardson

Farah Abdulah

Shota Hanai

Therry Malone

Malik Taylor

HARP

VIOLAS

Noah Linton

Madison Dorsett

Deonna Pope

VOCALISTS Byron Dodson Jerel Duren Phylicia Hill Rikayah Crawford

Liesl Erman

Ashley Diggs

Skyler Raye Pugh

Caleb Asrat

Trijean Wilkins

Samantha Monsma

VIOLIN 1

Chad Jackson

Jaden Upshaw

Amber Daughtry *

Paul Loredo

Beatrice Padilla

Darrel Sims Emily Che Gayle Adkins-McDonald

RHYTHM SECTION Bradford Tidwell

TRUMPETS

Brandon Glasgow

Brandon Samuels

Carlos Arredondo

Brandyn Phillips

Erynn Hill

Carlee Powell-Mann

Jacqueline Tringov

Daniel Kim

Jeffrey Arredondo

PIANO SOLOIST

Joshua Mercado

Jordan Busa

Terrence Wilson

Isiah Hughes Kenya Nelson Lorena Garcia

Don Brown Isaac Green Wendell Phipps

The Inner City Youth Orchestra wishes to give special thanks to the following people who have been an instrumental part of ICYOLA for many years and given extraordinary service to make certain that today's 15th Season Finale Concert is the grand success that it is Charles “Chuck” Dickerson III, Founder, Executive Director & Conductor Akilah Morgan, Director of Programs Melana Byars, Executive Assistant Dwayne Burrell, Assistant Conductor

Nichole Smith, ICYOLA Social Media Coordinator Sheldon Steier, Development Director Ronald Tyson, Drum Corps Director Ian Brown, Drum Corps Assistant Director JoVaughn Curry, Drum Corps Assistant

Treniece Ward, Rehearsal & Music Coordinator

LaVern Antoine, Music Instructor

Hannah Innis, Intern

Amber Daughtry, Music Instructor

Karan Innis, Summer Assistant

Benton Preciado, Music Instructor

Isiah Hughes, Summer Office Assistant

Malik Taylor, LA Orchestra Fellow

John Jackson, ICYOLA Development Consultant

Myles Yeazell, LA Orchestra Fellow

A Very Special Acknowledgment to our Performers who shared their musical gifts with us.

The Production team behind the documentary “The Orchestra that Chuck Built” A VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO Margo Wade LaDrew, President & CEO of Wade & Associates Group and ICYOLA Consultant Jody Gilbert, President, Kolorgraphix | Graphic Designer Michelle Johnson / On Track Virtual Services, LLC WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL HOUSE STAFF Charlie Miledi, Master Carpenter Marcus Conroy, Master Electrician John Phillips, Master of Properties Kevin Wapner, Master Audio Sharon F. Stewart, Director, Scheduling & Events Marisol M Garcia, Scheduling & Lease Events Administrator Colin Perkins, Lease Events Manager Jason Clark, Director of Production Katie Miller, Production Manager Lisa Quang, Production Coordinator Spencer Saccoman, Project Production Manager Greg Flusty, House Manager Jenny Calvo, Jose Garibaldi, Courtney Rabena and Jose Rivas, Head Ushers The stage crew, wardrobe crew, makeup artists, hair stylists, and box office staff are represented by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States of America and Canada, AFL-CIO, CKC, Local Numbers 33, 768, 706 and 857, respectively.

The House Managers employed by the Music Center are represented by the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers.