Young Strings at the de Young

The de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park stays open in the evenings on Friday until 8:45 PM, usually featuring some special theme for a "party night."



Last Friday the 23rd the theme was "Young@Art" featuring children and teenagers' art work on the ground floor of the museum, including the well-done faux Louise Nevelson above.



We didn't stay for the entire festivities, but were there for the beginning of a concert by a string orchestra from Lowell High School, the legendary public high school for brainiacs.



Though there were a few token gringos...



...the overwhelming majority of the ensemble was Asian-American.



They were introduced by some gasbag who told us about how he had been in Sacramento and seen all kinds of other groups and that this was one of the best, and so on and so forth, until he was finally drowned out by museum workers noisily dragging supplies to temporary cocktail stations, which was pretty funny.



The orchestra was simply wonderful, though the Dede and Al Wilsey court has truly terrible acoustics for music, since the sound bounces up to the high ceiling and then disperses into all kinds of nooks and crannies.



The teacher/conductor also might want to take her tempos a little quicker next time because the music demanded it, and her musicians can obviously handle them.