The 11-year-old girl walked across the imposing stage in patent leather ballet flats; her eyes squinting in the glare of the overhead lights. Arlette Romero took a deep breath. She sat up straight in rest position, her right hand firmly gripping the neck of her violin, and flashed a smile.
It was finally showtime.
Romero is a member of the nascent YOLA Expo Center Youth Orchestra. She and her orchestra mates were making their debut at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday night, performing an abbreviated version of "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel during the "?Bienvenido Gustavo!" concert; the event marked Dudamel's first performance as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
"This is something big and marvelous," Maria Isabel Jimenez, Arlette's mother, said in Spanish. "And I'm proud to say that my daughter performed at the Hollywood Bowl with [Gustavo]. He is a grand person."
The sixth-grader's eyes shifted from the music sheet to Dudamel's flashy hand movements during the short performance, always remaining careful to play each note with power and precision. "I just kept thinking, 'Don't mess up!' " Romero said. "But we've been practicing all summer, so it wasn't so bad."
Romero, who attends New Designs Charter School, is one of about 200 members of YOLA, the Philharmonic's effort to establish youth orchestras in underserved areas of the city in partnership with the Harmony Project -- an L.A.-based nonprofit organization that provides free instruments -- and the EXPO Center, which provides the venue for rehearsals.
The students, ages 6 to 17, come from more than 60 public, private and parochial schools in central Los Angeles. In January, YOLA will pilot an early childhood music program in the EXPO Center's preschool that will serve children ages 3 to 5.
At this stage, the orchestra is heavy on flutes, trumpets and violins because they are easier to learn.
The youth orchestra formed in spring 2007; it's modeled after El Sistema, the Venezuelan music education program that fostered Dudamel. That program, funded by the government's health department, brings free instruments and orchestras to mostly disadvantaged Venezuelan children.
Deborah Borda, the L.A. Phil's chief executive and president, stressed the importance of music programs for youth to realize their sense of worth.
