CHAPEL HILL, NC — Posted Apr. 26, 2008
On Sunday May 4, 2008, the Chapel Hill Philharmonia will present a concert featuring the extraordinary talent and creativity of young musicians. Melissa Chan, 14-year old winner of the 2008 Young Artists' Competition, will play the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor. She is a freshman at Enloe High School in Raleigh and currently a student of UNC Professor Mayron Tsong. Melissa has given recitals in Sopron, Hungary and Vienna, Austria and has been accepted to the 2008 Schlern International Music Festival in Italy.
The orchestra will provide the first public performance of Symphony No. 5 by Jay Greenberg, written when he was 13. Originally from Chapel Hill, Jay has been a Julliard student since age 12, "their only student every allowed, with a specially created framework, to take an extensive program of study in composition at the college level on a full scholarship." Profiled two years ago on 60 Minutes, he has been described as "a prodigy of the level of the greatest prodigies in history, when it comes to composition." His 5th symphony, though recorded by the London Symphony, has never been performed live. Jay, now 16, will be present to hear the performance.
Leading off the concert will be Mendelssohn's Overture to Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, composed when he, a German genius of the nineteenth century, was but 17 years old.
The Chapel Hill Philharmonia is a community orchestra of serious amateur players from the Triangle Region who play for the love of classical music. Originally 'The Village Orchestra', a recreational orchestra begun 25 years ago by Joel Carter and Ed Jackson, the group has grown in size and expertise, progressing from "open rehearsals for friends and family" to four concerts per year under the direction of conductor Don Oehler.
The concert is at 7:30 pm in the newly remodeled Hill Hall Auditorium at UNC-CH, and as always, admission is free. A reception for all will follow.