The Wilmington Symphony Orchestra is pleased to host the annual Free Family Concert featuring the Wilmington Symphony Youth Orchestra and Junior Strings, on Sunday, April 24th at 4 p.m. in Kenan Auditorium.  General admission seating is free and tickets are available at the door.
 
The annual Free Family Concert is sponsored by Southeastern Nephrology Associates in memory of Dr. Gary Hyman, and features a solo performance by the Junior Division winner of the 39th Annual Richard R. Deas Student Concerto Competition, Amelia Smith, violin, accompanied by the Wilmington Symphony Youth Orchestra.  Also on the concert will be the Girls’ Choir of Wilmington, directed by Sandy Errante.    
 
Dr. Richard R. Deas, for whom the student concerto competition is named and in whose memory it continues, helped create the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra in 1971. As the then-Chair of the UNCW Department of Music he assisted in developing the competition in 1976 as a way to give talented young musicians an opportunity to perform with a symphony orchestra.
 
Amelia Smith is 12 years old, and homeschooled in the 8th grade.  She has studied Suzuki violin since she was 3 and has attended several fiddle camps.  She started playing with the Stevenson-Stohl Studio Tour Group when she was 9.  In 2014, she attended the Lamar Stringfield Honors Music Camp at Meredith College.  She plans to continue studying violin and is currently working on forming a quintet with her sister and some friends.  Amelia also enjoys ballet, drawing, knitting, sewing, making jewelry, swimming and biking. 

The Wilmington Symphony Orchestra’s 2015-16 Masterworks season finale is on April 23, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. in Kenan Auditorium, featuring Leonard Bernstein’s brilliant Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, and Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 2, a colorful early work brimming with American tunes.  The concert is sponsored by Wilmington Health. 
 
Conductor Steven Errante says of the selections, “Who’s afraid of Charles Ives? His Symphony No. 2 is written in the grand Romantic tradition but full of distinctively American touches. And Bernstein’s music from West Side Story will have everyone snapping their fingers along with the Sharks and the Jets.”
 
Charles Ives was a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer who had a non-traditional style.  Born in Danbury, Connecticut, on October 20, 1874, to a musician father, Charles Ives later started his own insurance business while composing on the side. He won the Pulitzer for his Symphony No. 3, with other noted works including Piano Sonata No. 2 and "The Unanswered Question."
 
Leonard Bernstein was one of the first American-born conductors to receive worldwide fame.  Flamboyant, inspired and voracious in his conducting style, Bernstein got his big break conducting the New York Philharmonic in 1943.  He was the first conductor to give numerous television lectures on classical music, starting in 1954 and continuing until his death. He was a skilled pianist, often conducting piano concertos from the keyboard.
 
The 2015-16 concert season is sponsored by Reeds Jewelers.   Tickets are $25-$27 (plus tax) for adults and $6 (plus tax) for students and are available by calling the Kenan Auditorium Ticket Office at 910-962-3500 or online at www.wilmingtonsymphony.org.