Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra

The Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra (PACO) is an award-winning youth orchestra for regional string musicians of high-school age and younger. PACO’s five ensembles – SuperStrings, Preparatory, Debut Ensemble, Sinfonia and PACO – have approximately 25 members each which rehearse weekly with an extraordinary commitment to their art. They present a total of fifteen concerts FREE of charge to our community every year. 

 

Our emphasis on chamber music uniquely sets PACO apart from other youth programs and lies at the core of its educational success, allowing a highly personalized commitment to both our students and our community.  At all PACO levels, competitiveness is minimized in favor of cooperation, wherein each player is equally valuable to the whole.

 

Members of the Debut, Sinfonia, and Senior PACO orchestras attend our Annual Chamber Music Workshop (PACO camp) in August, where advanced ensemble training takes place under the watchful eyes (and ears) of a nationally renowned faculty.   For most, joining PACO is like joining an extended family.  Although these young musicians come from many different schools and diverse cultural backgrounds, they develop lifelong friendships and soon discover the larger definition of “ensemble” both musically and socially.  

 

In addition to our local impact, PACO’s achievements have gained national and international recognition.  Over the past fifty years, the Senior Orchestra has performed on tour in over a dozen countries in four continents. As we have done every June for many years, PACO performs by invitation at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland and at a benefit concert in Dunsmuir, CA. 

 

Community service is a strong component of every PACO orchestra. These have included performances at Stanford Hospital’s Bing Concert series, that benefits hospital patients and their families; an annual holiday concert in the rural, largely Hispanic community of Pescadero, California, to benefit local children’s programs; collaboration with the National Brain Tumor Foundation in a fundraiser to help support that organization. In January 2005, PACO began a special new after-school program in collaboration with the Ravenswood School District in East Palo Alto, bringing string and vocal study to elementary school students at the Willow Oaks Elementary School. Through this program, advanced PACO students tutored 8 to 10 East Palo Alto students on a weekly basis at Willows Oaks Elementary School throughout winter and spring quarters. 

 

Founded in 1966 by William Whitson, who served as the orchestra’s music director for 36 years, Benjamin Simon continues PACO’s tradition of excellence while bringing fresh energy and exciting direction to PACO’s programs.

 

The funds we generate during this campaign will benefit our children in terms of ensemble coaches, new music, and concerts with renowned soloists, not to mention financial support for tuition, tours, and summer workshop.  Your financial contribution is vital in helping to provide quality chamber music training for young musicians and to guarantee musical excellence in the community through public concerts and outreach performances. 

 

We sincerely hope you can support PACO with your donation. We would like to thank you for your generous support of PACO and its tradition of quality musical education and outstanding performances shared with the larger community both locally and abroad. To support PACO is to support our children and our community.