Sirena Huang

The Butler County Symphony Orchestra’s 2023-24 season continues this Saturday, Nov. 4, with the concert entitled “Brahms, Strauss, and Debussy.” The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Butler Intermediate High School.

This concert will consist of three musical selections: “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” by Claude Debussy, “Rosenkavalier Suite” by Richard Strauss, and “Violin Concerto” by Johannes Brahms.

As with all orchestra’s concerts this season, this concert will feature a guest conductor. This time it will be Moon Doh, associate conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Preceding the concert at 6:30 p.m. will be a lecture by Doh regarding the selections that will be played.

“He will be talking about these pieces and the background and history on them,” said John Furman, executive director of the orchestra. “We typically do these before each concert, so it's open to whoever wants to come to it.”

A guest violinist, Sirena Huang, will joing the orchestra to perform Brahms’ “Violin Concerto.” At just 29 years old, Huang already boasts a resume that most musicians twice her age would be envious of.

Huang made her solo orchestra debut with the National Taiwan Symphony in 2004 at age 9. Just four years later, she performed in front of then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the ceremony where he was awarded the Elie Wiesel Foundation’s Humanitarian Award.

In September 2022, Huang took home the gold medal in the International Violin Competition in Indianapolis. According to Furman, this was what ultimately led to the connection with her to bring her to Butler County for the upcoming concert.

“Sirena was recommended to us through a gentleman named Glen Kwok of the International Violin Competition,” Furman said. “We worked with Glen before when we had another violinist who came in, so he pretty much helped us to locate her for this.”

Presale tickets for the concert are $30 for adults and $10 for children and students. On concert day, tickets will be $35 for adults and $12 for children and students.

Doh will return to serve as guest conductor for the orchestra’s “Christmas at the Movies” concert on Dec. 2.

The county orchestra is in the middle of searching for a permanent conductor after the departure of Matthew Kraemer, who left Butler County to accept a director role with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra earlier this year.

According to Furman, the top three conductors found in the search will each play two concerts during next year’s schedule, with a permanent conductor finally to be decided in time for the 2025-26 concert season.