Youth Orchestra presents final two concerts of season

Staff Report

Rockford Symphony Youth Orchestra (RSYO), led by conductor Daniel Black, has announced the final two performances of the 2010-11 season.

A chamber ensemble performance will feature the RSYO Chamber Orchestra, Brass Choir, Woodwind Quintet and Percussion Ensemble at 3 p.m., Saturday, April 30, at the Salvation Army Temple, 500 S. Rockford Ave.

The RSYO will also perform their Spring Concert at 3 p.m., Sunday, May 1, at the Hononegah High School Performing Arts Center, 307 Salem St., Rockton.

The ensemble concert performance will feature small ensembles of RSYO musicians who have worked with professional coaches to prepare for this performance. The program includes works by Haydn, Beethoven, Shostakovich and Dukas. A reception for the ensemble members and guests will be held immediately following the concert.

Tickets—$5 for adults and $3 for students—may be purchased in advance at the RSO Box Office, 711 N. Main St., or at the door prior to the performance. For further information, call (815) 965-0049.

The Spring Concert features the full RSYO, including students from 17 regional public, private and home schools. Violinist Hanna Bingham of Sycamore, Ill., will perform the first movement of Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor with the youth orchestra. Bingham, a sophomore at DeKalb High School, was the first-prize winner of the 2011 Rockford Symphony Orchestra/Rock Valley College Concerto Competition.

The RSYO will also perform works by Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov and Shostakovich.

The Salvation Army-Rockford Temple Band will appear as special guests at this performance, performing pieces by Rossini, Himes and Cordner. A reception honoring the five graduating seniors in the orchestra will immediately follow the concert.

Tickets—$8 for adults and $6 for students—may be purchased in advance at the RSO Box Office, 711 N. Main St., or at the door prior to the performance. For further information, call (815) 965-0049.

The RSYO is the region’s only full orchestra program for high school musicians, offering opportunities for students to learn and perform challenging symphony orchestra repertoire since 1965. Students work with a professional conductor as well as sectional coaches from the RSO.

Members are admitted by auditions held twice each year in June and December. This season, the RSYO is composed of 48 students representing Auburn, Belvidere, Byron, Freeport, Genoa-Kingston, Harlem, Hononegah, Jefferson, Oregon, Pecatonica, Rockford Christian, Rockford Lutheran, Stillman Valley and Winnebago high schools; Washington Gifted Academy and Steven Mack middle school, as well as Rock Valley College, and home schools.

For more information about the RSYO, including auditions, visit www.rockfordsymphony.com or call Lorie Langan at (815) 972-2939.

From the April 27-May 3, 2011 issue