Excerpts from FresnoStateNews.com article by Lisa Boyles
Trumpeter Patrick Jensen first participated in FOOSA — Fresno Summer Orchestra Academy at Fresno State — the summer after his sophomore year at Roosevelt School of the Performing Arts. It was 2013, the first year of the festival.
Next week Jensen will take part for his fourth time, before starting his senior year at Fresno State as a trumpet performance major.
“It’s amazing,” said Jensen about performing on the Disney Hall stage in front of more than 2,000 family, friends and orchestral music fans. “You work for two weeks perfecting this really intense program, and then you go to the Walt Disney Concert Hall and everything just comes alive there. It’s such a great hall to perform in. The overall ambiance and acoustics, it melds everything together into one great sound.”
Read more about Patrick Jensen and his experience with FOOSA
The Fresno Summer Orchestra Academy, a project of Youth Orchestras of Fresno and Fresno State’s Department of Music, is holding its two-week intensive program from June 9 through 23 on the Fresno State campus.
This year’s FOOSA orchestra will present its culminating concert, “Triumph of the Human Spirit,” at 8 p.m. Friday, June 21, at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Free tickets can be reserved online.
The students and faculty will also present “Triumph of the Human Spirit” for local audiences at 7 p.m. Sunday, June 23, at People’s Church. This performance is free and open to the public. There are several other Student Showcases throughout the two-week festival, all free and open to the public at the Fresno State Concert Hall.
Since it began seven years ago, FOOSA has provided an exceptional music festival experience for nearly 1,000 students, bringing professional musicians from around the world to teach side by side with Fresno State’s own highly esteemed faculty members.
The College of Arts and Humanities at Fresno State 