Youth orchestras in holiday concert

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown Symphony Youth Orchestra and Youngstown Symphony Symphonette Orchestra will present Sounds for the Season at 4 p.m. Sunday at Powers Auditorium, 260 W. Federal St., downtown. More than 350 area children will participate in the concert.

Tickets are available by calling the box office at 330-744-0264, or online at youngstownsymphony.com.

Featured artists in the Youth Orchestra portion of the concert will include Madeline Grimes, a winner of this year’s Youth Orchestra Senior Concerto Competition, and the Boardman High School Combined Choir.

Grimes, a senior at Mathews High School, will perform Giulio Briccialdi’s “Carnival of Venice for Flute and Orchestra with Step.” The Choir, under the direction of Linda Smrek, will perform Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” and “For Unto Us a Child is Born,” and the Halleljuah Chorus from Handel’s “Messiah.” Richard Smrek, associate director of Youth Orchestra, will conduct the orchestra during the choral presentations.

The concert will begin with the Youngstown Symphony Symphonette Orchestra under the direction of Michele Prokop. The ensemble is composed of fifth- to seventh-grade string students, who will perform a varied program of holiday and popular music accompanied by Karen Lyn Fisher on piano and Joe Amadio on drums.

The Youth Orchestra, conducted by Stephen L. Gage, will perform Charles Ives’ “Postlude in F” and “The Nutcracker Suite” by Tchaikovsky. Other pieces on the program include “Commemorative Fanfare” by John Cheetham featuring the YSYO Brass Choir, conducted by Ryan Ham, and a selection by the YSYO Percussion Quartet, conducted by Matthew Hayes.