History
Young Audiences of Santa Cruz County was founded by Lillian Hoff, after attending several Southern Arizona Young Audiences (formerly the Tucson Chapter) concerts on the Lincoln School patio by a woodwind quartet. Tom Ralls, principal of Lincoln School at that time, and Carmen Nickel, the chairperson of the Tucson chapter, brought the programs to Lincoln at no cost. Carmen urged the formation of a local YA chapter to help pay for future concerts.
On December 7, 1971, 26 educators and community members met at the home of Lillian Hoff to charter Young Audiences of Santa Cruz County. Roberta Bracker, Esther Capin, Lillian Hoff and Opal Flotow made the first contributions of $25 each. By spring 1972, enough funds had been raised to present eight concerts and a year later Lillian Hoff became the Chairperson and Administrator and eleven years later the Executive Director.
Carolyn Rendon became the Executive Director in 1988. Connie Hutzel joined the staff in 1996 as part-time Administrative Director and Lourdes Jeong was hired in 2002 as part-time Program Director who in 2004 took over the reins as Interim Director when Carolyn retired after seventeen years. Lou is now a member of the Board of Directors. The YA Office Team now consists of Connie Hutzel, who took the reins as Executive Director during the 2006-07 school year (her 10th year with Young Audiences) and Jeannie Perez continues her position as Program Director since August 2004.
From eight concerts in 1971 to currently serving tens of thousands of students, educators and community members with hundreds of services throughout the county annually – Young Audiences of Santa Cruz County has certainly come a very long way.