This is a Community Announcement from the Cornell Symphony Orchestra. It was not written by The Ithaca Voice. To submit community announcements, please send them to Matt Butler at mbutler@ithacavoice.com.

The Cornell Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Guillaume Pirard, presents its annual Young Person’s Concert on Saturday, March 11 at 3:00 pm in Bailey Hall. The program will showcase the orchestra’s versatility and includes Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture, John Adams’ The Chairman Dances, and a world premiere by Cornell composer Laura Cetilia. Cornell Concerto Competition winner Brian Wang performs the first movement of Saint-Saëns’Piano Concerto No. 2. This family concert will feature a pre-concert instrument petting zoo at 2:15pm and curated musical examples during the concert targeted to engage and inspire younger audience members.

Wang is a junior studying biological sciences at Cornell and studies piano with Xak Bjerken. He is also the president of the Cornell Piano Society and enjoys playing the violin and rock climbing. Of the Saint-Saënsconcerto, he says “I think this piece is an especially fun one to play. It has a lot of light, shimmering virtuosic passages that are physically fun to play, but also a lot of melancholic thematic material that makes it emotionally satisfying to perform.”

Additional concerts March 15-16 include:

Wednesday, March 15

12:30 pm    

Sage Chapel          

Midday Music for Organ: Jeffrey Snedeker performs “Out of the depths,” with music by Bach, Mendelssohn, and 19th-century contemporaries. An avid devotee of the organ across his life, Mendelssohn’s Sonata in A Major, Op. 65 No. 3, with its stunning fugue on the chorale “Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu Dir,” is now a classic of the organ repertory. Snedeker takes this piece as the starting point for a survey of settings of this chorale, from Mendelssohn’s idol J. S. Bach to his 19th-century German contemporaries and beyond.

Thursday, March 16

7:00 p.m. 

Moakley House

Ariana Kim performs a recital entitled “Songs of Scotland” including Bruch’s “Scottish Fantasy” with pianist Kerry Mizrahi, followed by a set of Scottish airs and fiddle tunes with guest fiddlers from bluegrass band String Theory.

All events above are free and open to the public and are subject to change.