A New Orchestra is Set to Bring Symphonic Sounds to Orange County
- Sharon Stello
- Apr 3
- 10 min read
A local conductor has established the South Orange County Orchestra, which plans its inaugural concert April 11.
It’s not every day that a new orchestra is formed – not to mention one with a roster of 150 musicians plus a youth chorus and plans for a youth orchestra. So the South Orange County Orchestra has quickly gained attention after launching in the fall and announcing its inaugural concert this spring.
The group’s “Dare to Dream” concert, set for April 11 in Lake Forest, will feature 80 musicians, who will be paid, rather than following a volunteer community band model, thanks to the generosity of local sponsors. They will be joined by 50 singers from several groups in the area. A program of classical music by the likes of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky and pieces from films and TV will come together with choral works and the world premiere of a composition by Pamela Madsen, a music professor at Cal State Fullerton.
The brainchild of Irvine resident Ryan Koo, whose background is primarily in choral conducting, the nonprofit orchestra came together with the help of board members Anthony Zueck, a Laguna Niguel resident who works as a real estate and business broker with Bullock Russell Real Estate Services, and Dr. Shawn Hamilton, a physician based in Irvine.
Koo became interested in orchestras over the past year while on a mission to improve his choral conducting. He started watching videos of all types of conductors, taking Zoom lessons with one based in the Netherlands and attending workshops at several college campuses over the summer. Koo tried to find a group where he could serve as an assistant conductor to gain more experience, but when he couldn’t, he decided to establish an orchestra to lead himself. And the vision grew from there.
“I just figured, ‘Let’s try starting our own thing,’” he said. “I’ve always loved putting together concerts (and) finding players. Even in college, I always would recruit people to join choir. I had to recruit people to sing for my recital and whatnot and, so, I just decided to go for it.”
Building the Band
In the fall, Koo reached out to Zueck, who had taken voice lessons from him a while ago. Zueck, seeing a need for more orchestral groups in the area, was immediately on board with the plan. While he didn’t grow up playing an instrument, he now plays guitar and has a deep appreciation for music and the arts.
“Ryan is such a good guy and I could just tell his heart was in the right place about it and I wanted to support him,” Zueck said. “But, also, I knew there was a need for it. I know there are a couple other orchestras in the area, but I think what we’re going to be doing … is just a little different …. We kind of came up with the idea to make it very local.”
For example, concerts will rotate to a different city each time, celebrating the place with a new piece of commissioned music composed to represent that area. The first piece, Madsen’s “Dare to Dream,” was originally written for a wind ensemble, but she reworked it for a full orchestra with some additions to make it a new arrangement for SOCO.
Zueck first learned of Madsen when he heard one of her pieces at an Opera Laguna performance. Known as Mr. Hyperlocal, Zueck runs a successful YouTube channel with real estate education videos and local interest stories, is passionate about the south Orange County region where he grew up and has his finger on the pulse of the community. This orchestra’s music, he believes, will fill a niche.
“I think what’s going to distinguish us from the previous outfits is that not only do we play traditional classical music like they will, but we also are doing more contemporary music like film scores and television and such,” Zueck said.
Koo echoed that sentiment, noting that “we definitely want to respect the classics and the classics are important, but we also think that people kind of need to be eased into classical music.”
“We want to have a variety,” Koo continued. “Let’s give people something they will recognize. Video games, anime, and also the more traditional orchestral music. … We want to make it accessible to as many people in the community as we can so they can kind of develop an appreciation for it.”
The inaugural concert will be a taste of what’s to come – including a Christmas piece to tease a holiday program – in the orchestra’s regular season, which would tentatively run from September through June with two to four concerts, depending largely on the outcome of the group’s first performance in April.
As word has spread about the new orchestra, sponsors for the first concert have started to come forward, from Zueck to Moulton Museum and Montessori on the Lake School.
And musicians representing all ages and walks of life also have come forward to sign up. Some are college students, others professors. “We have pretty much 20-year-olds all the way up to probably age 60,” Koo said. “It will be a wide range.”
Koo himself is a man of many talents, not just on the podium. With master’s degrees in choral conducting from Azusa Pacific University and in music education from Teachers College at Columbia University, he serves as a teaching artist with the Grammy Award-winning Pacific Chorale’s Academy, and he founded the Northminster Presbyterian Church’s Music Education Initiative, which provides conducting opportunities for music education majors from Cal State Long Beach, Azusa Pacific University, Biola University, CSU Fullerton and Mount San Antonio College. In addition to his musical career, Koo has also found success as an actor, appearing in commercials for major brands including Samsung and Hyundai as well as a recent ESPN comedy sketch with Jim Gaffigan.
SOCO musicians playing with the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Chancel Choir for their Christmas service. Photos courtesy of Ryan Spohr
Among the musicians Koo leads in SOCO are violinist and concertmaster Sarah Ping, who recently moved to south Orange County and has been actively growing her local performance opportunities and teaching studio. The Aliso Viejo resident splits her time maintaining a private violin/viola studio, directing a strings program in an Irvine school and freelancing as a performer throughout Orange County.
“It’s exciting to be part of the launch of a new ensemble: getting to meet and work with new musicians, reach new audiences and play a founding role in shaping its artistic culture,” said Ping, whose resume is impressive, having played with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Ensemble and Banff Festival Orchestra, among others.
“I first picked up the violin at the age of 7 and began taking lessons seriously at age 10 in Toronto, Canada, and then in Boston … at the New England Conservatory,” Ping said. “My career has allowed me to perform throughout North America and Europe as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral violinist.”
For her, music provides a unique creative outlet.
“What I love about playing music is the way it allows me to communicate universally and beyond what words can fully express,” she said. “As a performer, I find fulfillment exploring the emotional and expressive possibilities within a piece, bringing together the composer’s intentions and my personal interpretation to hopefully create a connection to the audience.”
And Ping is just one of 150 musicians who have signed up to take part in SOCO. Of course, not every musician will play in every concert, but the group has a wide breadth of talent to pull from for each performance.
Curtains Up
The first concert will include not only the instrumentalists but also 50 singers from the SOCO Youth Chorus and regional groups that Koo conducts: Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Chancel Choir in Irvine, Huntington Landmark Chorale (at a senior community in Huntington Beach), Los Angeles Athletic Club Performance Chorale and the LAAC’s Athena Women’s Chorus, for which Koo serves as interim director.
On the program are classical masterworks including Carl Orff’s “O Fortuna” from “Carmina Burana”; Sergei Prokofiev’s “Dance of the Knights” from “Romeo and Juliet”; and movements from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 and Haydn’s Symphony No. 94, “Surprise.” Choral works include “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” the traditional Swedish folk hymn “How Great Thou Art” and “Joyous Carols of Christmas” arranged by Joseph M. Martin.
Modern music ranges from “Double Trouble” from “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” to “Departure to the Front Lines” from anime series “Naruto” and “Duel of the Fates” from “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.”
“I am very excited for SOCO’s inaugural concert,” Ping said. “It is a very ambitious, wide-ranging program that will have something for everyone – from landmark classical works from Beethoven and Haydn to popular film soundtracks. The concert will be unique in that we are intentionally playing excerpts from each piece as a preview for what the rest of the season will hold. I hope the audience will leave the concert eager to come back to hear the works in their entirety.”
Recently added to the concert lineup, legendary studio vocalist Randy Crenshaw will also be performing a solo, “If I Were a Rich Man” from “Fiddler on the Roof,” with the orchestra’s accompaniment. Among his list of credits, Crenshaw provides the singing voice of Homer Simpson and voices various characters in “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (including the mayor). He’s also an annual soloist with Danny Elfman at the Hollywood Bowl’s “Nightmare Before Christmas” concerts and the lead singer for the Perry the Platypus theme song on animated TV series “Phineas and Ferb.”
And, of course, the concert is rounded out with the premiere of “Dare to Dream.”
“It’s all about being bold, taking action and so we feel … it suits the orchestra,” Zueck said. “It’s kind of a big deal to start this orchestra and it’s a huge undertaking, for sure. It’s been a lot of work. So that’s what we’re doing, we’re daring to dream.”
Beyond the orchestra itself, Zueck notes Orange County as a whole is reflected in the piece.
“There’s going to be a lot of people in the audience, honestly, who dared to dream and they made this area what it is,” Zueck said. “I love getting to know so many of the people and finding out they made huge accomplishments on behalf of all of us, whether it was securing land for us to have public parks … or incorporating cities so we have our own governance and we’re not dominated by others.
“There’s so many people that dared to dream big dreams and I feel like they made Orange County, especially south Orange County … an amazing place to live and a place that continues to thrive. People are moving here from all over the nation because it’s just a stellar spot. So we’re reflecting that.”
Establishing a Rhythm
Once the inaugural concert takes place, Koo has much more planned for the orchestra. SOCO’s Youth Chorus will give a recital on June 6. The Youth Chorus, for fourth through eighth graders, will have auditions for the 2026-27 year over the summer, which is when auditions will also take place for the to-be-formed Youth Orchestra, tentatively set for high schoolers, but with the possibility of being opened up to younger students. A SOCO Community Chorus for adults is also being considered to start in the fall.
Koo said he wants to give back to the community. “I was part of youth ensembles growing up and I just think they’re a really good experience for a developing human being,” he said. “And we definitely want to give back to the south Orange County community instead of just saying come to our concerts …. We thought that (youth groups) would be a nice way to provide something we feel is valuable.”
The Youth Chorus is free to join and rehearses at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Irvine.
“I realized, especially in Irvine, that so many students are so busy that it’s hard for them to commit to a five-day-a-week choir or band, so we want to provide something outside of school where we can still give them a really cool experience,” Koo said. “Hopefully we can find some really cool gigs. Maybe we can tour over the summer … and give them something where they don’t have to go every day. I know a lot of those kids want to do something like that, but they just don’t have the time.”
Following SOCO’s inaugural concert, Koo said the group doesn’t anticipate presenting another full orchestra concert until the fall, but does plan to engage in community outreach through small ensemble performances at local shops, cafes, restaurants and other venues.
Like Koo, Ping also looks forward to the orchestra’s future.
“My hope for SOCO is that the ensemble brings new opportunities for inspiring musical performances to the fast-growing communities of south Orange County,” she said. “I also hope the ensemble reaches new and younger audiences through accessible concerts, as well as educational initiatives and community outreach programs.”
Zueck also has lofty goals for the group and a passion to help make them happen.
“Our goal is to build pride in the region and express our unique cultural identity through orchestral music,” he said. “That’s our main mission and we want to keep in mind that on the one hand, you want to preserve the greatest art that’s ever been made. So we do want to give those experiences to the audience. We want to play the Beethoven and the Mozart, the stuff that people expect and they crave, but we want to also give them (modern pieces). Art is continually evolving and it needs to represent the time and place where it’s being performed.
“And live music is unlike anything else. It’s that unique transcendent experience you’re only going to get when you’re in the hall. We want to keep that in mind as we preserve the old traditions. We get to be people who innovate because, back in Beethoven’s day, he was like the big force that was changing things and breaking new ground. And I think people kind of forget that as they go back to the classics and these old masters. But back in their days, they were the innovators. It’s important to balance those two things and that’s what we hope to do.”
‘Dare to Dream’
When: 7 p.m. Saturday, April 11
Where: Lake Forest Performing Arts Center, 100 Civic Center Drive, Lake Forest
Tickets: $33.85
More information: socorchestra.org
