“People, people, people!”
These were Festival Mozaic Music Director Scott Yoo’s first words to me when I asked what he was most looking forward to in this year’s concert series.
As he was preparing for his 20th season in San Luis Obispo directing and performing with some of the world’s top classical chamber ensembles and soloists, Yoo and I met via Zoom for a pre-festival interview.
His enthusiasm for the relationships he’s built with the local community is palpable. Yoo says he’s felt continual, growing support from the many performers, volunteers, donors, and audience members.
“[I believe] I’ve had dinner with at least a quarter of the audience members over the years,” he says.
When Yoo married flutist Alice K. Dade in 2014, he surmised that more than half of those attending the wedding were associated with Festival Mozaic. Now that their son, Malcolm, is one year old, the couple hopes to expose him to the festival experience this season.
The 2025 Summer Festival opens on July 16 with a sold-out Gala Celebration of Yoo’s 20 years at the helm. In its 54-year history, Festival Mozaic has had only two music directors, founder Clifton Swanson and Yoo.
Yoo was born in Tokyo and raised in Glastonbury, Connecticut. He started his musical studies at age 3. He received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, studied violin with Roman Totenberg and conducting with Michael Tilson Thomas.
Yoo has performed as solo violinist with chamber ensembles across the United States. He is also the chief conductor and artistic director of the Mexico City Philharmonic, conductor of the Colorado College Music Festival, and the founder of the Medellín Festicámara, a chamber music program that brings artists together with underprivileged young musicians.
Fans of PBS may know him as the host of Now Hear This, the Great Performances mini-series that opens the world of classical music to new audiences.
Preparing a series of concerts that will connect well with the audience while expanding their listening horizons is Yoo’s primary consideration as music director of Festival Mozaic. In that, he includes creating the best possible listening experience and researching for his “Notable Encounters”—a signature event where Yoo discusses a piece of music, its history, and the composer’s influences and musical style. Then he and other artists perform selections.
Yoo is known for helping audiences understand and appreciate new music as well as more familiar classics.”
Yoo’s hope is that these “Notable Encounters” help familiarize the audience with the music from the performers’ perspectives, and perhaps acclimatize them to unique aspects of a given work before the concert performance, which is typically scheduled a few days later. This summer’s festival will present three of these signature events on July 17, 22 and 24.
Additionally, he feels that pre-concert lectures delivered by Cal Poly music professor Alyson McLamore give a seasoned musician’s—and educator’s—substantive look at the historical, cultural and technical aspects of the music to be heard.
Yoo is known for helping audiences understand and appreciate new music as well as more familiar classics. Over the years, he has premiered 79 works by 41 composers.
Of note in this summer’s program are works by American composers Florence Price (“Piano Quintet in A Minor”) on July 18 and Dorothy Rudd Moore (“Three Pieces for Violin and Piano”) on July 25.
I let a bit of my composer’s sensitivities peek out in one question, asking Yoo if he plans to program some of the more progressive works from the last 100 years—for example, works by Charles Ives, George Crumb, or Elliot Carter?
He said Carter’s early works, like his “String Quartet No. 1” would certainly help expand the audience’s experience, and he definitely would consider some of George Crumb’s catalog like “Black Angels” and “Vox Balaenae” (“Voice of the Whale”) as another means of showing audiences that the world of music is much broader than the more conventional chamber works normally heard.
Looking back, Yoo said his most memorable experiences with the festival include J.S. Bach’s “Mass in B Minor,” Gabriel Fauré’s “Quartet No. 1 in C Minor,” and his 2005 directing debut leading the Festival Mozaic Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven’s “Leonore Overture No. 3,” which he will reprise in this year’s finale July 26.
Additional highlights of the 2025 festival include a new Young Artist Program, a collaborative with the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. Yoo characterizes it as a program for performers who are transitioning from their completed coursework to the world of professional concertizing.
“It’s a toe-wetting,” Yoo says, into the pool of professional performance that teaches such adjunct skills as proper event etiquette. The first participants comprise a string quartet that will perform in some of the festival’s mini-concert series.
Other festival events include collaborations with the SLO Film Center at the Palm Theatre and a live performance of Poulenc’s Babar the Elephant ballet for children featuring the Movement Arts Center dance troupe.
When asked about the upcoming festival, Yoo unabashedly replies: “Every year seems to be more outstanding than the last.”