In the final concert of its 28th season, the Shenandoah Valley Youth Symphony will perform The Lord of the Rings “Symphonic Suite” and other works. The featured soloist is violinist Eve Miller, a senior at Eastern Mennonite High School (EMHS).
The concert is at 4 p.m., Sunday, March 18, in Lehman Auditorium at Eastern Mennonite University. A $7 donation is requested. A reception will follow.
The 40-member youth symphony, an auditioned ensemble of middle and high school musicians from Page, Shenandoah, Rockingham and Augusta counties, is conducted by James Madison University instructor Yi-Ping Chen.
The orchestra will also perform Routenberg’s “Jazz Violin Concerto,” Franz von Suppé’s “Light Cavalry Overture” and “Symphony for the Body” by Inti Figgis-Vizueta, the 2017 winner of the JMU New Music for Young Musicians Composition Competition.
Figgis-Vizueta will rehearse with the students prior to the concert and attend the concert. Originally from Washington, D.C., he is currently pursuing a Masters in Composition at Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
The Composition Competition recognizes and encourages young composers 28 years of age and younger to compose music for younger ensembles in middle school through high school.
Miller will be the soloist for the violin concerto, a role she earned in a spring 2017 audition. A four-year member and co-assistant concertmaster, she began studying violin in the Harrisonburg City Schools Strings program and now volunteers with that program at Stone Spring Elementary School. She is a member of the EMHS orchestra, and enjoys tennis, mountain biking, skiing and playing the spoons. She plans to continue to study music after graduation.
The Junior Strings ensemble, which includes 12 members from Rockingham and Augusta counties, will begin the concert with a work by Holst and a fiddle tune. This intermediate-level group is conducted by Sharon Miller and is often the first orchestra that developing students have the opportunity to join.
The symphony and Harrisonburg City Schools Strings Program are part of the university’s Preparatory Music program.
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