It all started…

…back in 1936 when Jessica Marcelli founded YPSO in Berkeley - inspired by her colleague who did something similar in Portland, Oregon. During that time, there were not many music director careers for women conductors, so she forged her own path because of her passion for leading young people in music.

Here is Jessica Marcelli’s biography from the May 25, 1962 concert program.

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TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF SERVICE as conductor of the Young People's Symphony Orchestra are being brought to a close as Jessica Marcelli has announced plans to retire.

Founder of the orchestra which has won national recognition, Mrs. Marcelli has built it into a unique musical organization in which throughout the years, more than 1500 young people have been given an opportunity to study and play standard orchestral scores.

Dedicated in her work of instilling youth with an appreciation of good music, Mrs. Marcelli believes that the great music that young people learn to play and to appreciate, strengthens them spiritually and morally.

“They learn to give themselves to group interests and to forget self interests," she says of her teen-age orchestra members.

"Along with harmony and rhythm, they learn ideals," she believes.

It is a high compliment to Mrs. Marcelli that with a membership that changes each spring and fall as new semesters begin and end, that she has been able to weld into a harmonious orchestral group some fifteen hundred youngsters of varying ages and musical ability. To keep an orchestra together during a season, despite the measles or mumps, home studies or because they could not get to rehearsal ( some of the orchestra members make a 50-mile round trip twice a week ) is a challenge that the conductor of an adult orchestra does not have to meet. But each year Jessica Marcelli. with her kindness, understanding and skill, would develop a new orchestra of earnest young musicians.

Not once during the 25 years did she miss the twice-a-week rehearsals until last fall when an accident confined her to her home.

A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, Mrs. Marcelli trained both in this country and Europe to become one of the first women orchestra conductors. Before coming to Berkeley she was a teacher of music in San Diego and a member of the San Diego Symphony.

A director and past president of the Berkeley Piano Club and a member of the All Arts Club of Berkeley, Mrs. Marcelli has won a unique place in the cultural life of the community.

The idea of an orchestra especially for young people first germinated here in 1936. Mothers of the young people searched for a conductor whose enthusiasm would match their own.

They found one who had long dreamed of just such amusical group. Jessica Marcelli... and entrusted her with the task of rehearsing the young musicians and molding an orchestra. She has conducted every concert given by the orchestra since its founding, except this, the twenty-fifth season. Due to an accident, Mrs. Marcelli has been unable to conduct this season.

To celebrate Women's History Month, YPSO alumnus and clarinet / woodwind coach Larry London shares his memories of Jessica with us.

If you have any YPSO alumni history to share, please contact Nadia Liu at ypso@ypsomusic.org.