Wennberg Orchestra Festival

Violinist Jenna Son, 15, is a sophomore at the Davis Senior High School and a pre-college student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music under the instruction of Elbert Tsai. Jenna started violin lessons at the age of six with Heather Powell and continued her studies with Dr. Christine Choi. Jenna is a member of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra under the baton of music director Daniel Stewart in addition to being assistant concertmaster of the DHS Symphony Orchestra directed by Angelo Moreno.

Jenna has served as concertmaster of the Holmes Junior High Advanced Orchestra (2022-2023), HJH Intermediate Orchestra (2020-2021), Davis All-City Elementary Orchestra (2019-2020), Sacramento Youth Symphony Academic Orchestra (2019-2020), and SYS Vivace Strings Orchestra (2016-2017) and was a first violinist at the SYS Premier Orchestra (2020-2022) until she joined the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in the fall of 2022. As a proud member of the Davis school orchestra program, Jenna played in the first violin section at the 2023 California Orchestra Directors Association High School All-State Symphony Orchestra and the 2022 California All-State Junior High String Orchestra. Jenna will be joining again  as a first violinist in the 2024 CODA High School All-State Symphony Orchestra in February.

An avid chamber musician, Jenna is the violinist of the Borealis Trio at the SFCM Pre-College coached by SFCM violin faculty Doris Fukawa. Since 2018, Jenna has participated in the summer and winter chamber music workshops directed by Susan Lamb Cook. As part of the VITA Academy Great Composers Series Rising Stars Program, Jenna has performed in various piano trios and string quartets at the Harris Center for the Arts at Folsom Lake College and the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at UC Davis.

Jenna won first prize at the 2023 Solano Symphony Young Artist Competition and will be a featured soloist with the Solano Symphony Orchestra at the Salute to Youth concert in March of 2024. Jenna also won first place at the 2022 and 2020 American String Teachers Association (ASTA) Sacramento Solo Competition, 2022 California Association of Professional Music Teachers (CAPMT) Sacramento Music Competition, and 2018 Crescendo International Music Competition, as well as 2022 Best Bach Performance at the Great Composers Competition Series, second place at the 2022 Solano Symphony Young Artists Competition, third place at the 2023 Auburn Symphony Young Artist Competition, and was named a finalist at the 2023 Sejong Music Competition. Jenna performed at the Junior Bach Festival on both violin and piano in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Besides violin, Jenna studies piano with Akiko Gaffney and received the MTAC Certificate of Merit Advanced Level with State Honor (2023) and top prizes at the Classical Masters Music Competition (2015, 2016, 2017), Japanese Piano Teachers Association of the Greater Sacramento (JPTAG) Piano Competition (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), CAPMT Go for the Gold Music Competition (2016, 2018, 2019),  and CAPMT Honors  Competition (2021).

In the summer of 2022, Jenna attended the Heifetz International Music Institute where she studied with Jennifer Liu and Chloe Kiffer and played masterclasses for violinists Shannon Lee and Luosha Fang. Jenna loves to share her musical experiences with the community through Lifting Spirits with Music, the DHS Strings Tutoring Program, and the Back To Bach Project Davis region where she serves as the Associate Regional Director.

Jenna is honored to be a winner of the 2024 DHS Concerto Competition and is thrilled to play the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the DHS Symphony Orchestra at the Mondavi Center in April and Carnegie Hall in June.

Pianist Caitlyn Ohler, 17, is a junior at Davis Senior High School. She has played piano for 11 years and studies with Dr. Natsuki Fukasawa. Caitlyn has won awards in a number of piano competitions such as the Music Teachers Association of California’s (MTAC) Memorial Scholarship Recital, the California Association of Professional Music Teachers’ Go for the Gold Competition, the Auburn Symphony’s Young Artists Competition, the Solano Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artists Competition, and most recently, the Davis Senior High School Concerto Competition.

In addition to piano, Caitlyn has studied violin for nine years with Mr. Andy Tan. She was the concertmaster of the Holmes Intermediate and Advanced Junior High School Orchestras, and the Davis Senior High School Baroque Ensemble for the European Tour of 2023. She has performed in the California All-State Symphony Orchestra and as the concertmaster in the All-State String Orchestra. Her chamber trio won the MTAC’s VOCE Competition in the Northern California region in 2021.

Caitlyn is a long-time participant with Ms. Susan Lamb Cook’s Rising Stars and Ms. Kathy Adkins’ Lifting Spirits with Music community service programs. In her free time, Caitlyn enjoys singing, guitar, tennis, art, tutoring younger students on the violin, and hanging out with her friends.

Angelo Moreno is a graduate of UC Davis, where he received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Orchestral Conducting under the direction of Dr. D. Kern Holoman. He earned his Teaching Credential in Music Education from Sacramento State University. While at UC Davis, Mr. Moreno served as Principal second violin in the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra and as concertmaster and soloist in the UC Davis Baroque Ensemble.

Moreno has been directing orchestras in the Davis Joint Unified School District since 2000. He is currently the Director of the Davis Senior High and Holmes Junior High School Orchestra Programs, and the founder of the Davis High School Baroque Ensemble, the first such group at the high school level in the country. Moreno also conducts the Sacramento Youth Symphony’s Academic Orchestra and maintains an active private teaching studio.

Mr. Moreno has received numerous awards for his contributions to music education. In 2005, the CSUS College of Education presented him with their Teacher of the Year Award in recognition of outstanding service to public education. The following year he was honored by State Assemblywoman Lois Wolk and recognized with a resolution from the California Legislature. In 2009, Sacramento News & Review honored Mr. Moreno at the “Jammies Concert” with their Sacramento Music Educators Outstanding Achievement Award. Closer to home, in the fall of 2011, the Davis Schools Arts Foundation gave Mr. Moreno their Harmony in Our Lives Award. A year later, the California Music Educators Association (CMEA) unanimously recognized Mr. Moreno as the state’s Richard L. Levin Orchestra Educator awardee. In 2014, the Recording Academy and GRAMMY Foundation recognized Mr. Moreno as a Quarterfinalist for their first annual Music Educator Award. Just recently in 2024 Mr. Moreno was honored to receive the “Heroes of Arts Education Award ” by Friends of Sacramento Arts.

The venerable music magazine DownBeat has recognized Mr. Moreno and his musicians several times—first in 2010, when his Combined Junior High Advanced Orchestra was named Best Classical Ensemble at the junior high level in a nationwide search; in 2011 and 2012, when the Davis Senior High School Symphony Orchestra was named Best Classical Ensemble at the high school level; and in 2014 when the Holmes Junior High Advanced Orchestra was named Best Classical Ensemble at the junior high level.

Mr. Moreno has been featured in numerous national and regional publications and websites for his development of the DHS Baroque Ensemble the first group of its kind in the country in a public school, including Symphony Magazine Online, Early Music Magazine, Strings, San Francisco Classical Voice, In-Tune Magazine, and the National Association for Music Education’s Teaching Music. Most recently in December 2022, Mr Moreno was given the honor of being featured in School Band and Orchestra Magazine, to represent the State of California in the issue “50 Directors Who Make a Difference”.