Area composer premiering two works with Sinfonia

The Carson Valley Sinfonia will present its annual fall concert at 4 p.m. Sunday in the CVIC Hall, 1602 Esmeralda Ave. in Minden.

The free concert will feature the premiere performance of two new works, “Challenger Deep” and “Allegheny Legends,” by Carson Valley composer Marcia Stockton. Both pieces are scheduled for publication next year by Imagine Music Publications.

The concert will also offer conductor John O’Neill’s string orchestra arrangement of the “Final Waltz” from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” ballet and his orchestration of Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” for brass quintet and strings; Carson Valley’s Silver Brass ensemble, led by Cole Larson, will join the orchestra for the latter and also perform the “Hornpipe” from Handel’s “Water Music.”

The program will be rounded out with Saint-Saens’ “Gloria and Alleluia,” Wagner’s “March of the Meistersingers,” as well as the “Minuet” from Symphony No. 102 by Haydn and the Allegro movement from Bach’s “Concerto in D Major.”

The Sinfonia, a student and community string orchestra, is open to qualified musicians from the greater Carson Valley area. It draws participants from as far away as South Lake Tahoe, Sparks and Yerrington. Members range in ages from 11 to over 90, and in experience, from the intermediate student and talented amateur to the professional.

The orchestra is an affiliate of the Carson Valley Violin School, founded in 1992 by John and Nelle O’Neill with the assistance of the Carol Franc Buck Foundation, Douglas County School District and Douglas County Recreation Department. Since its inception in 1995, the Sinfonia has premiered 35 new compositions and arrangements by several local composers many of which were subsequently accepted for publication and since performed by hundreds of orchestras throughout the United States and Canada. Nine of these scores received an Editor’s Choice Award, given annually for outstanding new publications, by J. W. Pepper, the world’s largest distributor of sheet music.

The Carson Valley Violin School, now in its 24th year, offers instruction on all orchestral string instruments to children and adults. More than 30 of its students have won seats in one of the Reno Philharmonic Youth Orchestras. Many of its graduates have won scholarships based on their musical skill and several are now pursuing music as a career in the United States and Europe.

For information, call 775-267-3495, or email mftd-jo@charter.net.