(upbeat music) - Folks we're glad to be joined by José Luis Dominguez who is artistic director at New Jersey Symphony Youth Orchestra.

José Luis, great to have you with us.

- Thank you, Steve.

Thank you for having me.

- Tell everyone what the orchestra is while we put up the website so folks can find out more.

- Absolutely.

The New Jersey Symphony Youth Orchestra is a wonderful program that actually includes young players from lower school, middle school up to high school.

We have seniors as well so there's normally four to five different ensembles.

The older players, high school, high schoolers normally play in the Academy Orchestra which is the orchestra I conduct normally.

And they are a full orchestra.

Winds, brass, percussion, and all of it.

So it's the more advanced, more experienced group.

And what we have is a weekly session during the academic year where amazing coaches from the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra players from the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and teaching artists from the area, of course they coach our students beyond just rehearsing.

So this is very special.

Because of that, we have two very particular things.

There's a lot of coaching directly that has to do with the instrument itself, then with the repertoire itself.

And there's the experience of playing with others in the ensemble.

And we also lately work on compositions as well from the students.

So it's a very full package of creativity and ensemble playing.

- Yeah, this is part of our Arts Connection series.

You'll see the graphic on the lower third right now.

But what I'm fascinated by José Luis is this you grew up in Chile?

- Yes.

- Okay.

Your dad, your father, a musician.

- Yes.

- You fell in love with music, when?

- Oh, this is not gonna be as academic and profound as you think, but it's gonna be the truth.

So I was about seven years old and I was already being trained by my father at home.

We had a piano.

My father is a wonderful teacher.

He's retired now, but he taught all his life and he was also a conductor, a bassoonist.

So he taught me, since I have memories, I mean really all the time I was training music at home.

But the day I said I wanna do this was around 1978.

Oh, I just said how old I am.

Anyway, so I was like, about seven or eight years old my dad took me to the movies.

And a movie started with the words "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," and a B flat major chord played by the London Symphony Orchestra exploded in John Williams for Star Wars.

And I was just blown away.

And I kept asking my dad, what is that?

What is that?

And he took the time to explain to me what symphonic music was.

There was no turning back from that.

So Mr. Williams, guilty.

Yeah.

That was it.

- Wow.

- I was very young, so I thought I thought it's a good thing actually.

It could be very academic because if you think about it a year later I was studying the Rite of Spring by Stravinsky.

So it's an opening door.

It doesn't mean anything that it's for a movie.

Doesn't matter what it is.

I mean, it's the open door to the world of symphonic music.

- I'm curious about this, how much of how you fell in love with music and were exposed to music at a young, young age do you believe has influenced you with the New Jersey Symphony Youth Orchestra and your desire to teach these young people?

- Well, it started earlier than that Steve, when I was in Chile being the music, the resident music director of the Philharmonic in the Opera house my professional orchestra, I was at the same time the the principal conductor, artistic director of the National Youth Symphony Orchestra of Chile.

That got to be a very high level.

And it's a very similar program to El Sistema in Venezuela.

It's a similar program with, of course adapted to Chile's possibilities, obviously.

So my, my heart has always been in both places the professional career and the young players' career.

So I played in a youth orchestra since I was a very young, and I just can't see myself not conducting young players ever at some point regardless of the professional career.

So that is, that meant everything to me when I got this calling from New Jersey Symphony the youth orchestra program, because this that's what it's all about really.

That's what it's all about.

To get, you know, young people exposed to music whether they're going to be musicians or not it's not the point.

The message is the same.

This is a life experience that changes people for the best.

You get to play with others, you get to learn from others you get to actually communicate without words.

It's with your instrument.

And you learn a lot of social skills.

There's a discipline to it though.

In the New Jersey Symphony Academy, we're all very very drawn to be disciplined, but very kind.

Kindness is our thing.

We are kind to each other.

We don't discipline.

Like in the old days, we teach, we listen we always encourage, always encourage.

Our criticisms are that's kind of the identity that I felt was there already.

And I've been swimming in that wonderful ocean of of kindness and music all these years.

- You know it, again, check out the website to find out more about the New Jersey Symphony Youth Orchestra.

But the other part of running a not-for-profit as as we know well know at our production company we're a non-profit, is at least half of my time is spent on the business side of things.

Raising money and getting underwriters, keeping underwriters convincing underwriters to stay on board.

How much of your life is outside of the music and the business of the orchestra?

(laughing) You're laughing 'cause you know it's, hey, it's no fun.

Those of us in public broadcasting know no money, no mission.

I say it all the time, - I know.

- Fun, sexy topic.

But it's real.

It's real.

- It is absolutely real.

I believe that all artists that find themselves in a position of leadership at some point in their lives need to accept that this is something that we must do.

And I've been very blessed, very lucky that I've always surrounded myself or been surrounded by amazing people of many different, you know with many different talents.

And, and so there is a department there is a staff in the New Jersey Academy of Youth in the youth orchestra program that, that really really take care of every possible angle that you can imagine.

And sometimes I have to get into that as well.

- That's right.

- And, and speak to people.

The way I just spoke to you so far has worked for me.

Just, you know - Your passion comes through.

Hey, I'm sorry for cutting you off but I wanna give you a chance to plug some upcoming shows.

- What's coming is that the New Jersey Symphony Youth Orchestra Program will have their semester final concert in the early days of May.

And every ensemble is going to be playing a repertoire of their own in one wonderful afternoon.

And the Academy Orchestra that I conduct the high schoolers, will be playing not only pieces by Tchaikovsky movement of the fifth symphony.

- Right.

- But which is very, very difficult.

A very high standard of repertoire.

But we are also going to be playing a world premier.

And please go to the website and check out these dates because we're gonna be playing a piece composed, orchestrated by one of our own students, which is a result of our creative approach during the pandemic during our lockdowns, we created all this thing and now we are making it happen in front of everybody.

Don't worry about the dates people go on the website.

It's been up the whole time.

José Luis Dominguez, artistic director at the New Jersey Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Well done my friend we wish you all the best.

- Thank you so much Steve.

Wonderful to meet you.

- I'm Steve Adubato.

That is José Luis Dominguez.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Hackensack Meridian Health.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Prudential Financial.

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PSEG Foundation.

Johnson & Johnson.

TD Bank.

The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

And by NJM Insurance Group.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by The New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

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