Youth Orchestra to perform on Sunday

Members of the East Central Illinois Youth Orchestra performed at Smith Recital Hall in Urbana during their Winter Concert 2022. The 2024 concert will be performed this Sunday at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

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URBANA - More than three dozen of the best orchestra students in Champaign-Urbana and the surrounding area will perform at the East Central Illinois Youth Orchestra Winter Concert at Smith Music Hall in Urbana.

"It’s going to be cold on Sunday. What better antidote than an evening of heartwarming music?" asks music director Kevin Kelly. "The talented students of the orchestra have been working hard since mid-September on a challenging and worthy program."

The program starts at 7 p.m. and will include Richard Wagner’s Prelude to the opera Die Meistersinger, Eine kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart, and Sibelius’s Karelia Suite. The orchestra will also perform Johann Strauss Jr.’s Emperor Waltz, and Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances from the opera Prince Igor.

The concert free to the public. Those who wish to make a much appreciated donation can do so through The Conservatory of Central Illinois.

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Classical musicians give winter concert

Members of the East Central Illinois Youth Orchestra performed at Smith Recital Hall in Urbana on Sunday. The orchestra, made up of 49 students from the local area, including Champaign, Urbana, Mahomet, Monticello, and Danville, delighted parents and guests pieces from Verdi, Malcolm Arnold, and Dvorak at the music building on the University of Illinois campus. Here, the cello section plays during the Hungarian Dance No.5 in G Minor by Johannes Brahms conducted by Kevin Kelly at the Winter Concert 2022.

Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks