Desert Community Orchestra

About the DCO

The Desert Community Orchestra was formed in 1960 and has been an iconic part of the community of Ridgecrest, California ever since. Its mission is to provide live performances of orchestral music to the local region, provide local musicians an opportunity to perform and participate as soloists, and encourage young talented musicians to further their musical education with financial support through music scholarships.

 Every spring young musicians are invited to audition for the Peter Pinto Music Scholarship Award. The DCO also annually sponsors The Young Artist Competition. Student musicians audition for the privilege of being accompanied in performance with the full orchestra. The orchestra has featured musicians as young as 12 years old in their annual “Touch of Class” concert.

 DCO has hosted international guest soloists over the years. The list of celebrities includes Alan Paul of Manhattan Transfer, Camilla Arnold, Terry Glenny, Diva Jones, Gerardo Tamez, Sherri Stark, Lawrence Spector, Bethany Grace Folsom, and The Neave Trio.

Robert Martinez conducted the orchestra from 1995 - 2024. Maestro Mark Hatter conducted the September 2024 Pops Concert, and Caleb Yanez Glickman conducted the December 2024 Christmas In Ridgecrest concert. David Newby will be conducting the March 2025 Winter Concert.

Meet the Musician

Read the Daily Independent interviews with current and former members of the orchestra: Robby Martinez, Lydia Washburn, Amber Petersen, Amanda Elfrink, Bianca Samaniego, Andrew Richards, Brandon Burkhardt, Clare A. Hatter, Lisa Austin, and Heidi Miller-Costanzo.

Our Next Conductor for the Young Artist Concert Saturday May 17, 2025:

Emmanual Rojas

Los Angeles-born conductor Emmanuel Rojas is currently the assistant conductor of the Santa Clarita Symphony. In Spring 2024, Emmanuel served as a conductor for the Bard College Opera Workshop and assisted maestro James Bagwell for the Bard Vocal Arts Program’s production of Jacques Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers.

He has also assisted Carl St. Clair and Sharon Lavery with the USC Thornton Symphony and assisted in the Fall 2019 USC Thornton Opera production of Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream under the direction of Brent McMunn. Emmanuel also presented concerts with members of the USC Symphony Orchestra.

Emmanuel participated numerous conducting workshops, most recently the 2025 Spokane Symphony International Conducting Workshop with Johannes Schlaefli and James Lowe, and the 2019 International Conducting Workshop & Festival with Larry Rachleff and Donald Schleicher.

As a bass trombonist, Emmanuel has performed with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Burbank Philharmonic, the Downey Symphony, and the Santa Monica Symphony. Also, as guest artist of the Bard College Conservatory Orchestra, Emmanuel has worked with Grammy/ Academy Award winner and Dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, Tan Dun.

He also performed with Bill Cunliffe's BACHanalia Big Band and was part of the US-premiere of Bob Mintzer's People Music with the USC Thornton Jazz Orchestra. Emmanuel studied the bass trombone with John Lofton of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at CSULB and Terry Cravens of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra at USC.

Emmanuel holds a MM in Orchestral Conducting from the Bard College Conservatory of Music. He received a BM in Bass Trombone performance from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach in 2015. He later went on to earn his MM in Bass Trombone performance at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in 2017. He stayed at USC to pursue a DMA in Bass Trombone performance, with elective concentrations in Arts Leadership, Opera Conducting, and Music Theory Analysis.