Youth is served

April 02, 2012 Last Updated: April 02, 2012 11:31 AM Weekend Entertainment

Hannah Che

Young Artist winners perform with orchestra

The Butler County Symphony Orchestra will perform at 7:30 p.m. March 10 featuring the winners of the 33rd annual Young Artist Competition and a guest conductor.

The concert will be at the Butler Intermediate High School Auditorium. The theme for the 63rd season is “A Night Of …” and this concert will focus on “A Night of Beginnings.”

This year's Young Artist Competition in the high school category produced two winners: pianist Hannah Che and violinist Andrew Percy.

Andrew, a Lyndora resident, is a senior at Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School in Midland, Beaver County, and will play the third movement of Saint Saens' “Violin Concerto.” He has been playing the violin for 10 years and has won numerous awards.

Hannah is home-schooled in the Beaver School District. She has been playing the piano for 10 years and has many awards to her credit. She will play the first movement of Prokofiev's “Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Flat Major, Op. 10.”

The guest conductor will be Thomas Hong, one of three guest conductors this season auditioning for the job of permanent conductor and music director. Hong was most recently assistant conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, leading numerous classical, community, education and pops concerts for the PSO.

The March 10 concert will open with Brahms' “Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80.” Brahms described this work as “a very jolly potpourri on students” since it revolves around popular student tunes of the time, most of them associated with beer.The orchestra also will play “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” by John Williams, and “The Muppet Medley,” arranged by Bruce Chase, as well as “Danzon No. 2” by Mexican composer Arturo Marquez, one of the most frequently performed pieces of Mexican classical music played by orchestras today. The program will end with “Hollywood Salute” arranged by Robert Wendel.Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door; student tickets are $5. Tickets are available at the symphony's office, 259 S. Main St.For more information, call 724-283-1402 or visit www.butlersymphony.org.