UC Davis music graduate student alumna Jessica Bejarano (‘08) recently became the first woman to conduct the American Youth Symphony, which is based in Los Angeles.

She recently conducted Shostakovich’s Festive Overture in a program that also featured Anna Clyne’s This Midnight Hour, and Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier Suite, as well as a world premiere of Fil Eisler’s Violin Concerto For J.E., with Sarah Chang at UCLA’s Royce Hall.