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Preparatory News
Sinfonietta to Take Listeners Around the World
In March, the Peabody Preparatory’s Sinfonietta will take the stage at the Baltimore Symphony’s Meyerhoff Hall for a concert of music from around the world. The group of primarily high school student musicians will share the program with the Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestra, directed by Peabody alumnus Jason Love. Peabody Dance, led by artistic director Carol Bartlett, will join the orchestras with two dances.
The Sinfonietta, the most advanced of the Preparatory’s three orchestras, includes about 30 string players and is led by Harlan D. Parker, conductor of the Peabody Conservatory’s Wind Ensemble. Parker, who took up the baton with the Sinfonietta in September, succeeds longtime director Gene Young. “I really love working with high school kids and teaching at the Conservatory, so this just seemed like a great fit,” says Parker, who is also coordinator of the Music Education Division at the Conservatory.
The musical adventure at the Meyerhoff, billed as a family concert for children ages 7 through 12, will include Copland’s Hoedown from Rodeo, Debussy’s Nuages from Nocturnes, Rhapsody on Folk Songs of Okinawa by Japanese composer Yuzo Toyama, and a piece by Spanish composer José Pablo Moncayo, titled Huapango. Peabody Dance students will perform two dances choreographed by faculty members Barclay Pease and Lisa Green-Cudek.
In the weeks leading up to the performance, Parker said his young Sinfonietta players were growing increasingly excited by the prospect of performing at the Meyerhoff. And Parker himself was happy about partnering with colleague Jason Love, whose group includes about 70-plus string players from around the Baltimore area. With string players from both orchestras, additional wind and brass players, and Peabody student dancers, some 150 student musicians will
fill the Meyerhoff stage for the concert on March 8 at 11 am.
Four Compete at the Kennedy Center
Four students from the Preparatory were among eight young musicians who made the final round of the National Symphony Orchestra Young Soloists’ Competition, in the high school division. The finalists all performed at a free concert at the Kennedy Center on Sunday, January 6.
“All of our students performed beautifully,” says Peabody Preparatory Dean Carolee Stewart, who attended the evening concert. The finalists included Lance Zhao (piano student of Elizabeth Stevenson), Lauren Song (violin student of Rebecca Henry), Patricia Wnek (violin student of Rebecca Henry), and Stephen Tavani (violin student of Shirley Givens).
Tavani, who played Vieuxtemps’ Violin Concerto No. 5 in a minor, Op. 37, was awarded an honorable mention. The winner of the competition, George Fu, earned the opportunity to perform as a soloist with the National Symphony this spring.
—SD
