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Page 16 Palisades News November 18, 2015<br />

Conductor<br />

Stoyanovich<br />

Joins PaliHi<br />

By LAUREL BUSBY<br />

Staff Writer<br />

Ayear ago, Elizabeth Stoyanovich and<br />

her husband happened to drive by<br />

Palisades Charter High School<br />

while on vac<strong>at</strong>ion.<br />

Stoyanovich was immedi<strong>at</strong>ely taken with<br />

the campus and thought the school probably<br />

had “a gre<strong>at</strong> music department.” This<br />

summer, while back <strong>at</strong> home on Bainbridge<br />

Island, Washington, she saw a PaliHi job<br />

posting for an orchestra/jazz band director<br />

and applied. She interviewed via Skype and<br />

felt an “immedi<strong>at</strong>e connection with the<br />

music staff.”<br />

Then “when I came here and saw them<br />

teach, I knew I was in the right place. Mr.<br />

[Joshua] Elson and Ms. [Arwen] Hernandez<br />

were amazing,” Stoyanovich said. “This<br />

place is exciting to work <strong>at</strong> and teach in—the<br />

kids and the area . . . They’re just really, really<br />

good sweet kids. They want to learn. You<br />

want to share th<strong>at</strong> excitement of educ<strong>at</strong>ion.”<br />

Stoyanovich now leads two orchestras <strong>at</strong><br />

PaliHi—one with about 50 experienced<br />

players—plus a jazz band th<strong>at</strong> has about 18<br />

Blood Drive<br />

November 22<br />

Dr. Mike Martini is organizing a community<br />

blood drive, sponsored by Providence<br />

St. John’s Health Center. The event<br />

will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on<br />

Sunday, November 22, <strong>at</strong> the American<br />

Legion Hall, 15427 La Cruz Dr. For an appointment,<br />

call (310) 829-8886 or e-mail<br />

sherry.arroyo@providence.org.<br />

Donors are reminded to e<strong>at</strong> a nutritious<br />

meal beforehand, drink plenty of<br />

fluids and bring a photo identific<strong>at</strong>ion.<br />

Donors will receive a coupon for a pint of<br />

Baskin-Robbins ice cream.<br />

Elizabeth Stoyanovich is the new orchestra/jazz band instructor <strong>at</strong> Palisades High School.<br />

members, including a jazz singer. In addition,<br />

she is teaching music to two classes of<br />

ninth graders who are learning the basics of<br />

not<strong>at</strong>ion and rhythm. “My days here are so<br />

full and rich working with the kids,” she said.<br />

An experienced conductor and former<br />

oboeist who has spent much of her life immersed<br />

in music, Stoyanovich has enjoyed a<br />

vast array of musical positions, ranging from<br />

guest conducting the Paris Conserv<strong>at</strong>ory<br />

Orchestra and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra<br />

to spending nine years as the music/artistic<br />

director of the Orchestra of Saint Cecilia.<br />

She has also taught <strong>at</strong> both CSU Fullerton<br />

and UCLA and studied under Leonard<br />

Bernstein <strong>at</strong> the Tanglewood Music Center.<br />

“Some people like to do the same thing<br />

for 20 years,” Stoyanovich said. “I like to<br />

build programs and take on challenges.”<br />

Like Bernstein, teaching and conducting<br />

have always called to Stoyanovich, and she<br />

found her time with Bernstein inspiring.<br />

He was a “n<strong>at</strong>ural teacher—a gre<strong>at</strong> performer—but<br />

he loved teaching. You could<br />

see th<strong>at</strong> in him, every part of him.”<br />

Stoyanovich has numerous plans to help<br />

PaliHi’s music program and its students.<br />

She aims to raise money to hire coaches to<br />

work with the kids and intends to enter them<br />

in competitions. “I don’t care if we come in<br />

last place. It’s vital to listen to other kids your<br />

age and see wh<strong>at</strong>’s wh<strong>at</strong>. Th<strong>at</strong>’s how they<br />

really learn—going into those situ<strong>at</strong>ions.”<br />

Stoyanovich is also working to connect to<br />

the students <strong>at</strong> Paul Revere Middle School,<br />

“so they know they have a home here. I want<br />

them to know we care about them, and if<br />

they want to continue, there’s a place for<br />

them here.” She added th<strong>at</strong> she is seeking out<br />

local music teachers, musical families in the<br />

area, and people who support the arts to<br />

help the program grow and flourish, but she<br />

noted, “nothing will grow a program faster<br />

than the kids being happy about it.”<br />

As a conductor, she toils with the kids to<br />

“break things down and clean things up—<br />

99 percent of our time together is refining<br />

a work.” She describes it as visiting “dingy,<br />

dark places. It’s like going to the coal mines<br />

to turn on electricity. It takes time and effort,<br />

and th<strong>at</strong>’s okay. We’re all doing it together.<br />

We’re growing together.”<br />

A long-term goal for her and the department<br />

in general involves building a visual<br />

and performing arts center for the school to<br />

house the cramped music, arts, dance, photography<br />

and ceramics programs. “I’m looking<br />

forward to being part of the team th<strong>at</strong> is<br />

going to help realize th<strong>at</strong> in this area,” said<br />

Stoyanovich, who noted th<strong>at</strong> there are about<br />

400 students enrolled in the music program.<br />

A passion for music and the arts runs in<br />

her family. Her husband, P<strong>at</strong>rick, is a composer<br />

and pianist, while one daughter,<br />

Antonia, studies photography <strong>at</strong> Cooper<br />

Union, and the other, Sophia, is a violinist<br />

<strong>at</strong> Juilliard.<br />

“We e<strong>at</strong> and bre<strong>at</strong>he it 24/7,” Stoyanovich<br />

said. She added, “I think music is a really<br />

honorable profession. I love music. I think<br />

it’s n<strong>at</strong>ural th<strong>at</strong> I would want to share my<br />

love of music with others.”<br />

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