New Music Guild to feature 3 guest artists

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The New Music Guild’s annual festival this weekend will feature composer Kathy Henkel of Los Angeles, as well as the Aurista Chamber Music ensemble of Thomas Osuga and Sho Omagari.

The main concert will take place at 4 p.m. Sunday at Sts. Peter and Paul Church, 421 Covington St. There also will be a convocation performance at 11 a.m. Friday at Youngstown State University’s Bliss Recital Hall for the students and faculty of the Dana School of Music.

A reception to honor the three guest artists will follow Sunday’s concert.

The festival will include concerts at several local schools, including St. Joseph the Provider, St. Joseph and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The New Music Guild, which fosters and performs original compositions in classical music, welcomes the public to all events free of charge.

This year will mark the second time Henkel will serve as principal guest composer of the festival.

Osuga, a Dana graduate, directs the New York-based Aurista Chamber Music. An exceptional pianist, he is known for his technical skill and ability to sight-read contemporary music.

Omagari, also of New York, is a virtuoso violinist who is as much at home in 19th-century repertoire as he is in modern compositions.

Several of Henkel’s works will receive their Ohio premieres by Dana faculty, local artists and Osuga, who will play her Piano Sonata in Two Movements (1986).

Other performers will include John Olsson; soprano Jennifer Mosher with pianist Diane Yazvac; soprano Colleen McNally-Harris and harpist Kirk Kupensky; and Rachael Swanson and the Howard String Quartet.

The Festival Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Dana professor emeritus Robert Rollin, will reprise Henkel’s “Passing Doble” (2014), which premiered at last year’s festival. The orchestra also will perform works by principal cellist and Dana alumni Jason Howard, and Rollin.