Kids, adults coming together to perform free Poway concert

Musicians of all ages and skill levels will be coming together to perform a free concert on Saturday.

The Youth Philharmonic Orchestra’s Suzuki Strings beginner’s class will join the Poway Symphonette in concert at noon on Saturday at Incarnation Lutheran Church, 16889 Espola Road in Poway.

The concert is free and open to the public, but donations are welcomed.

“It’s going to be a wonderful collaboration,” said Ulli Reiner, the founder of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and the artistic director for both Suzuki Strings and the Poway Symphonette. Reiner will be conducting both groups for the concert.

The concert will begin with a performance from the Suzuki Strings, the youngest ensemble group of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. These beginners are still working through the Suzuki books. There will be several soloists performing as well.

This will be followed by a performance from the Poway Symphonette, which will feature a guest conductor, Dr. Ellen Weller of Palomar College.

There will be a wide age range of performers, ranging from a 4-year-old beginner violin player to a 75-year-old former CEO, who will be publicly performing for the first time in 40 years.

“What a range we have,” said Reiner. “We get to see how music progresses in a life.”

The Suzuki Strings will be performing works from Suzuki Book I and Book II, including “Lightly Row,” “Go Tell Aunt Rhody,” “Song of the Wind,” “Now It’s Time to Go To Sleep,” “Long, Long Ago,” “May Song,” “Camptown Races,” “Polly Wolly Doodle” and more.

Following the group performance, there will be several solo performances from Reiner’s private students. “We’ll start with the younger soloists, then move into more advanced solos,” said Reiner.

These soloists will be Riley Danielson. Ryan Jee, Ashley Gruff, Ruby Rosas, Shriya Sankaren, Jamie Santosa, Kurash Parsai, Ariel Cha, Sara Hermann, David Kim, Rylan Gibbens and Ulli Reiner herself.

The soloists will perform a wide variety of pieces from Bach, Mozart, Lully, Seitz and more.

The Poway Symphonette, which recently returned from performing several concerts in Vienna, Austria, will perform several pieces by Mozart, Brahms and Dvorak.

“We’ve done mostly Baroque (music) in the past, but we’re moving into classical and romance (in this concert),” said Reiner.

They will be performing “Symphony No. 1 I. Allegro” by Mozart; “Poco Adagietto from Symphony No. 3” by Brahms; “Symphony No. 10 Finale” by Mozart and “Three Slavonic Dances” by Anton Dvorak.

The next concert for the Suzuki Strings will be on May 30, rehearsals for the concert will begin March 7 for anyone interested. Rehearsals are held 4 to 5 p.m. each Saturday at Incarnation Lutheran Church.

For more information on the Suzuki Strings or the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra’s other ensembles, call 858-485-8114 or visit www.yposd.org.