Youth orchestra to perform on campus this Sunday

The East Central Illinois Youth Orchestra will perform a concert at Smith Recital Hall in Urbana this Sunday, January 16, at 7pm.

The orchestra is made up of 49 students from the local area including Champaign, Urbana, Mahomet, Monticello, and Danville. Each student must audition for a spot in the program run by The Conservatory of Central Illinois. The young musicians are among the top high school classical instrumentalists in the area.

"We’ve been preparing since mid-September, with weekly rehearsals on Sunday afternoons at the Krannert Center," said Kevin Kelly, Conductor and Program Director. "The orchestra plays professional-level music from the standard orchestral repertoire, which presents expressive and technical challenges and tremendous learning opportunities for talented, highly motivated student musicians."

The program includes Giuseppe Verdi Overture to The Force of Destiny, Camille Saint-Saëns Danse Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah, and Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G Minor and No. 6 in D Major.

"This particular program has two selections drawn from operas—by Verdi and Saint-Saëns—two influenced by national styles of particular countries—the Irish dances of Arnold and the Hungarian dances of Brahms—and a movement from a celebrated symphony by Dvořák, who was a protege of Brahms," Kelly said. "Some of the tunes will be quite familiar to classical music fans, but all of it can easily be enjoyed by even the novice listener."

The concert is free to the general public and proof of vaccination or negative COVID test is required for admission.

The musicians for Sunday's program include:

Violin: Noel Chi, co-concertmaster, Jenna Shin, co-concertmaster, Elijah Song, co-concertmaster, Sierra Freund, assistant concertmaster, Emily Duong, Sarah Guo, Andrew Kim, Maggie Li, Wesley Lu, Swarup Majumder, Elan Pan, Shreyas Singh, Bruce Tang, Maya Viswanathan, Max Wang, Renee Wang, Emily Wilson, James Yan, and Dan Yang.

Viola: Sarah Kim, principal and Advait Rajmane.

Cello: Yelim Kim, principal, Ellie Kim, Sarah Su, Jeana To, Firmiana Wang, and Jason Yan.

Bass: Kalah Weber, principal and April Vanichtheeranont.

Flute: Grace To, principal, Hewitt Friedman, Elizabeth Su, and Jonas VisGirda.

Piccolo: Jonas VisGirda.

Oboe: William Ding, principal, and Ioelle Lee.

Clarinet: Benjamin Chang, co-principal, Stefania Dzhaman, co-principal, and Teo Percoco.

Bassoon: Christian Deck.

Horn: Owen Robinson, principal, and Mason Miao.

Trumpet: Gabe Difanis, co-principal, and Aaron Rosenstein, co-principal.

Trombone: Roman Di Girolamo, principal and Jack Minor, and Nick Wurl (guest).

Tuba: Owen Ericson.

Piano: D. J. Wang.

Timpani: Elianna Lee.

Percussion: Jason Kim