Sou-Chun Su
The connections between the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's Associate Principal Second Violinist Sou-Chun Su and the ASYO run deep. He was a member of the ASYO from 1983, to 1985, and his future wife and his younger brother were in the violin section of the ASYO together four years later. One of his best friends in ASYO, John Sparrow, is now the ASO's General Manager and Vice President. He and Sou-Chun are still great friends. Maestro Flint, his ASYO conductor, is also a current colleague. Sou-Chun now has four students of his own in the ASYO. Perhaps most amazingly, his ASYO coach and private violin instructor was ASO Principal Second Violinist David Arenz, who is now his stand partner. It's no wonder he feels that ASYO has been a major influence in his life.

Sou-Chun was born in Taiwan and began studying violin with his father when he was three. Even though Sou-Chun had won numerous individual and national awards on the violin by the time he was 14, he had never played in an orchestra because the schools in Taiwan did not offer orchestra programs at that time. It was not until he immigrated to Marietta in 1981 and enrolled at Lassiter High School as a ninth grader that he first experienced playing in an orchestra.

At the beginning of his sophomore year, Sou-Chun joined the ASYO. "I only found out about the ASYO because a friend took me to see one of their concerts, and I was blown away by how professional they sounded," he said. "It was one of the premier youth orchestras in the country then, and it's even better now." Sou-Chun views his three years in the ASYO as instrumental in his decision to pursue music as a career. "Jere expected us to play at a high artistic level, and the results were fantastic. I looked forward to the rehearsals every Saturday morning. It provided me an opportunity to play great music with other kids who shared the same passion." In his senior year he was named Concertmaster of both the Georgia All-State Orchestra and the ASYO.

After high school, Sou-Chun went on to the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Bernhard Goldschmidt and Daniel Majeske, both late principals of the Cleveland Orchestra. Sou-Chun says what he remembers most about his early years at CIM was the transition from practicing 1-2 hours a day to practicing 6-8 hours daily just to keep up. "I was overwhelmed with the amount of music that needed to be learned and the competition I was facing. Being dedicated and working intelligently were the only ways I knew to survive."

Shortly after Sou-Chun received his Bachelor of Music from CIM in 1990, he auditioned for his current position, the Associate Principal Second Violinist of the ASO. "I worked really hard for that audition because it was my home town orchestra and an opportunity to sit next to my old teacher," he said. Realistically, his expectations weren't very high. "I just wanted to play well and demonstrate that I was ready to play in a major symphony orchestra." Much to his surprise and delight, in only his second professional audition, he was offered the job and became the youngest member of the ASO at the age of 22. After 14 years, Sou-Chun still enjoys playing with the ASO. "Robert Spano and Donald Runnicles have brought so much energy and life into this orchestra," he remarked. "We are very fortunate to have two conductors of their caliber with us. I'm very optimistic about the ASO's prospects for the future, including the new concert hall. It's an exciting place to be right now."

In addition to playing with the ASO, Sou-Chun enjoys chamber music. He and his wife, Sheela Iyengar, are the founding members of the Amadeus String Ensemble, and he has performed with the Georgian Chamber Players. Sou-Chun is also active on the local recording scene. He has played on recordings for R.E.M. (Automatic for the People) and the Indigo Girls, on commercials for Disney, Delta, Coke, and several TV programs. When he's not playing the violin, Sou-Chun enjoys traveling (especially to Italy), cooking, sports, and video games.

Sou-Chun and Sheela have a 3-year-old daughter, Julia. And if Julia's interest in the numerous violins in her house is any indication, chances are good that Sou-Chun's connections with the ASYO could last for at least another generation.

John Sparrow
Though he began as a bassoonist with the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, John Sparrow is now the Vice President and General Manager of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. It was a long journey, and Mr. Sparrow owes part of his success to his four years with the ASYO.

"I went to the Eastman School of Music with the full intention of becoming a professional bassoonist with a major orchestra," says Sparrow. During his junior year in the Bachelor of Music program, however, Mr. Sparrow got to serve in various administrative capacities for local orchestras in the Rochester area. He enjoyed it and began to question whether serving the musicians on stage, rather than being one, would be a more apt career path for him.

In his senior year at Eastman, Mr. Sparrow applied for an American Symphony Orchestra League fellowship. He was a finalist, but did not win a fellowship. However, he did get interviewed for several orchestras in the process. This led to a job as Operations Assistant for the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra.

His duties had two parts. One was unloading and loading the truck. The other was driving around and tending to the needs of guest artists. It was the latter that Mr. Sparrow says, "was one of my favorite jobs. I got to meet so many fascinating personalities."
For ten years, Mr. Sparrow served in different administrative positions for the FPO, experiencing many management changes. In the process, he earned his MBA from the University of Florida. All of these things, he says, "gave me many different perspectives on solving problems within an organization."

All the while, he had the high standards of the ASYO in the back of his mind driving his input and decision-making for such an organization. It was his past with the ASYO that led him to return to Atlanta, seeking the position of V. P. and General Manager of the ASO.

Mr. Sparrow feels he brings a unique perspective to his current position because of his ASYO experience. He knows a lot of the history of the ASO and ASYO. "It is important to know and preserve this history in thinking about where the orchestra will be in ten years."

He also finds it interesting that the ASYO has had quite a few alumni return to the ASO. These alumni are, Chris Martin, ASO Principal trumpet (ASYO 92-93); Mark Hughes, ASO Assistant Principal trumpet (ASYO 78-79); Chris Pulgram, ASO first violin (ASYO 80-81); Sou-Chun Su, ASO Associate Principal Second violin (ASYO 83-85). The latter, says Mr. Sparrow, "is still one of my best friends."

From his years in ASYO, Mr. Sparrow recalled playing Copland's Lincoln Portrait, with Andrew Young as narrator. "It was very exciting to work with someone of that stature who was equally thrilled to work with us."

He also remembers his first opportunity, at the age of 14, to play principal bassoon on Tchaikovsky's Second Symphony. "I was very nervous and excited at the same time, and I was having so much trouble with this one passage. At that very tense moment, Mr. Flint was able to give me a sense of comfort. It is his great patience, his musical knowledge, and his ability to work so well with young people that is so rare in a 'teaching' conductor. He has helped make the ASYO great and maintained its level of professionalism."

Mr. Sparrow is excited to "repollonate the next generation of ASYO seeds." He feels very protective of the ASYO, and wants it to be run as a professional orchestra for young people. "That's what makes it so special--the level expected is never lowered. Also, Jere and the coaches really work hard to teach you how to be a musician--they don't just teach the music. It isn't so mechanical, that way. It also gives the young musicians a chance to see what the life of a professional musician is like."

For ASYO alumni, he says their experience with the ASYO is invaluable. "It will serve you well in whatever you do. Getting into the ASYO sets a very high goal at a very young age that's hard to reach, and it gives you a sense of pride and fulfillment when you do reach it. Also, you get to create a product that can't be great unless everyone contributes. It has remained great because of a lot of people's hard work."
Dr. Keith Jeffords
Dr. Keith Jeffords is a man of many talents. He is a medical doctor with training in both general surgery and plastic surgery. He is a dentist with extensive experience in dental surgery. He is a business owner with his own plastic surgery practice in Smyrna. He is a tenor in the Grammy© Award winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus. He is also a very proud alumnus of the ASYO!

When Dr. Jeffords was a student at South Cobb High School in Austell, GA, he was already a gifted trumpet player. He won first place in the brass solo division of the

National Teen Talent Program and attended the Georgia Governor's Honors Program. The ASYO had just been founded and he wanted to have the experience of playing with other serious musicians. He auditioned for the group in the fall of 1975 and played with them through the spring of 1977. Michael Palmer, an ASO assistant conductor, was the ASYO's music director at that time.

Dr. Jeffords recalls the ASYO as being a somewhat serious place in those early days. "We didn't have opportunities to socialize very much. But those Saturday morning rehearsals were filled with some wonderful music." He notes that a number of students from his two years in the orchestra are now enjoying professional careers with symphony orchestras around the country. One of his closest friends was another young brass player, current ASO trumpeter Mark Hughes. "Mark and I had a lot of fun on that back row with the rest of the brass players." He enjoyed sectional rehearsals under the leadership of Joe Walthall and Michael Moore, and remembers one particular concert in which the ASYO provided the accompaniment for a national concerto competition. "The group was smaller in those days than it is now, but we were still very good and dedicated to making great music."

When he went on to college and then medical and dental schools, Dr. Jeffords continued to play trumpet in a number of ensembles. "We had one jazz group in medical school that was called 'The Progress Notes' in a tongue-in-cheek reference to the medical charting we had to do." Even after he finished all of his medical training and moved into private practice, he continued to play as often as he could. "Actually, I only stopped playing actively about 4 or 5 years ago because my schedule just got too hectic. But music is still a major part of my life."

Dr. Jeffords' ties to the extended ASO family are important to him. He sang with the ASO Chorus from 1981 to 1986, then returned in 2000 and continues singing to this day. In the past year with the ASOC, he has had the opportunity to perform with the ASO at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, with the Berlin Philharmonic in Berlin, Germany, and with the ASO in New York's Carnegie Hall in addition to many concerts and recordings here at home. He shares the stage with fellow ASO Chorus member Linda Martin, mother of ASO principal trumpeter Chris Martin and ASYO graduate Michael Martin. "I was a sophomore in high school when Chris was born. Freddie Martin, Chris' dad, was my band director at South Cobb High School, and I remember when Linda went into labor and had to be taken to the hospital." He enjoys watching the ASO trumpet section from his unique vantage point in the tenor section of the chorus. "There is Joe Walthall, my former coach, Mark Hughes, my former ASYO colleague, and Chris Martin, the son of my high school band teacher." While many ASYO students pursue professional music careers, many others go on to careers that don't involve music. Nevertheless, the experiences they have with the ASYO become an important part of the fabric of their lives, and music remains a passion that feeds their souls. For Dr. Keith Jeffords, this is certainly the case, and he is happy that he can continue his ties with the ASO in such fulfilling ways. Look for him in the tenor section of the ASOC the next time you see an ASO choral performance. He'll be the guy watching the trumpets with a little smile on his face.