Poway Symphonette holding final concert Sunday
The Poway Symphonette will end its 2016 concert series with a finale concert on Sunday.
The concert will begin at 7 p.m. and will be held at Incarnation Lutheran Church, 16889 Espola Road, in Poway. It is free and open to the public.
The finale will feature a complete preview of the music the Symphonette will perform when it travels to China in July, including a traditional Chinese folk song, “Jasmine Flower.”
The Poway Symphonette is a chamber orchestra that is run through the Poway Adult School, specializing in Baroque and classical music.
The Chinese tour, which will be called “Taste of China,” will take 20 members of the Poway Symphonette to perform in concert halls in Beijing, Xian and Shanghai. They will accompany a traditional Mongolian choir while performing.
The Symphonette will be performing the “Concerto Grosso Opus 6, No. 9” by Corelli, “Prelude No. 1 in C major” by Bach, and “Concerto Grosso in D minor, No. 11, Op. 3” by Vivaldi as well as “Concerto in G major” by Vivaldi, which will feature Ulli Reiner, artistic director of the Symphonette, on solo violin; the “Brandenburg Concerto No. 5” by Bach, which will feature Dr. Ching-Ming Cheng on piano and Jane Masur, owner of Ozzy’s Music in Poway as the solo flutist; and the “Decorah Bald Eagle Violin Concerto,” by Madelyn Byrne, a professor at Palomar College.
The members of the Symphonette will also get to tour a raptor rescue center in Beijing, something Reiner said was especially exciting because of the “Decorah” piece they will be performing.
“Decorah Bald Eagle Violin Concerto” was chosen to bring to China because it represents a softer side of the U.S.,” said Reiner.
The Symphonette will be performing the “spring” section of the violin concerto, which has four sections focusing each on a season in the lives of a pair of mated bald eagles. The spring section represents the nurturing of the pair’s newly-hatched eaglets.
The concert will also feature a slideshow put together about bald eagles that will be shown as the “Decorah” concerto is performed.
Reiner is also celebrating being named as a quarter-finalist for the 2017 Grammy Education Award. This is Reiner’s second year in a row being named as a quarter-finalist. last year, she made it to the semi-final round, where she was one of 25 nominees up for a position in the finals.
The Music Educator Award recognizes “current educators who have made a significant and lasting contribution to the field of music education.”
“How exciting, I can’t believe it happened again,” said Reiner. “My students are really excited.”
In addition to her work with the Symphonette, Reiner is the orchestra director for the Poway Unified School District for Bernardo Heights Middle School and Twin Peaks Middle School, a position she has held since 1983.
She was also the founder and orchestra director of the Poway High School Symphony and has taught orchestra at Mt. Carmel High School, Black Mountain, Mesa Verde, and Meadowbrook Middle Schools.
Reiner said she will find out sometime in September if she has advanced to the semi-final round this year.