Bennington, VT — On Sunday, March 12, at 4:00 p.m., kids of all ages are invited to attend Sage City Symphony’s annual Youth Concert at Greenwall Auditorium in the VAPA Building at Bennington College. Admission is free and open to all.

The program will feature the first movement of Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor with soloist Robin Wang; the first movement of Dittersdorf’s Double Bass Concerto in D Major with soloist Grace Winters; the first movement of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik; the opening of Beethoven’s iconic Fifth Symphony; and other youth-friendly selections. As a special treat for budding musicians, string players in Grades 3 to 6 from the North Bennington Strings at the Village School, led by director and instructor of violin and cello Perri Morris, have been invited to join the orchestra to perform Suzuki’s Allegro.

Covid Protocols: All current and evolving guidelines issued by the CDC, the State of Vermont, and Bennington College will be followed. Face masks and social distancing may be required (“pod” seating permitted), and proof of vaccination and ID may be requested at the door. In the event of a resurgence of Covid infection rates, postponement or cancellation of this concert will be posted on the Symphony’s website at www.SageCitySymphony.org.

Featured Players

Robin Wang, from Vancouver, Canada, has been playing piano for 13 years. She initially studied with Ronald Morgan and currently studies with Doris Stevenson at Williams College. Robin holds a Licentiate Diploma in piano performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music, as well as the 2018 National Gold Medal for the Licentiate exam. She first performed at Carnegie Hall in 2014 and has won awards at many national and international competitions. Although she no longer competes, music remains one of her greatest passions. A junior at Williams College majoring in physics and classics, Robin plans to pursue engineering after graduation. Apart from piano, she also enjoys reading old books, listening to heavy metal, and playing violin.

Grace Winters is a junior at Mount Greylock Regional High School in Williamstown, Massachusetts. She started playing bass at 10 years old and has studied under James Bergin and Robert Zimmerman. Grace has performed at the Massachusetts Western District Festival and All-State Festival. She recently played in a concert at Mass MoCA with professionals from New York and the local area in a premiere of the live version of Murray Hidari’s Distanced Together, a piece for a 60-part string ensemble. She enjoys performing with Community Intergenerational Action Orchestra (CIAO) and Sage City Symphony. Grace looks forward to continuing to play and grow as a musician.

Perri Morris, director and instructor of violin and cello for the North Bennington Strings at the Village School in North Bennington, Vermont, is a renowned cellist who had her very first cello lesson with Sage City Symphony manager Gail Smith in 1967 and went on to study with conductor and cellist Michael Finckel and others before earning a bachelor’s degree in performance from the New England Conservatory of Music, a master’s degree in performance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a bachelor of arts degree from Mount Holyoke College. A registered Suzuki teacher, she teaches at the Green Mountain Suzuki Institute and the Williamstown Orchestra Workshop each summer; she has also taught strings at the Pine Cobble School in Williamstown. In addition to maintaining private lesson studios in Williamstown and Bennington, she performs regularly with the Vermont, Springfield, and Berkshire Symphonies and is principal cellist of Opera North, New Hampshire.

About Michael Finckel

Having served as principal cellist during Sage City Symphony’s early years in the 1970s, and later as a commissioned composer and cello soloist, music director Michael Finckel continues the unique traditions and musical standards of the orchestra’s co-founder, Louis Calabro.

A native of Bennington, Vermont, Finckel’s formative studies were with his parents, both prominent musicians well known throughout the state. He later attended Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and Bennington College, where he studied composition, conducting, and orchestration with Louis Calabro and Henry Brant. He has taught cello and composition at Bennington and Marymount Colleges, and at Princeton and Cornell Universities. As a member of the faculty of the Vermont Governor’s Institute on the Arts, he taught gifted junior and senior high school students from around the state. Currently living in New York City, Finckel is engaged in an active multiple career as soloist, chamber musician, composer, teacher, and conductor. As a cellist he has performed with orchestral and chamber ensembles in venues from coast to coast and across Europe. He performs and coaches each summer at the Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and the Chamber Music Conference and Composers Forum of the East at Bennington College.

About Sage City Symphony

Sage City Symphony’s 2022–23 season heralds two important anniversaries: the 30th anniversary with conductor Michael Finckel, and the 50th anniversary of the Symphony’s first performance under Lou Calabro.

Co-founded in 1972 by composer Louis Calabro and Christine Graham as a community and college orchestra with close ties to Bennington College, Sage City Symphony gave its first concert in 1973. At the time, it was one of only a handful of orchestras in the country to commission and premiere new works. Today the Symphony performs the traditional classical repertoire as well as contemporary music, commissioning and premiering new pieces each season, with the mission of presenting programs that are beyond the usual ambition of community orchestras and that offer a challenging playing opportunity to local musicians. The Symphony attracts a high caliber of dedicated amateur and professional players who travel from throughout Vermont, New York, and Massachusetts for weekly rehearsals during the concert season. Auditions are not required, and academic credit is available for Bennington College students who participate. Information about joining the symphony, as well as Covid protocols observed at rehearsals and concerts, is available at www.SageCitySymphony.org.

Sage City Symphony is a registered federal non-profit organization in the State of Vermont that relies entirely on generous donations, gifts in kind, grants, and volunteer services from individuals, local foundations, businesses, and sponsors. Donations are gratefully received by mail at Sage City Symphony, PO Box 547, Shaftsbury, VT 05262 or online via www.SageCitySymphony.org. Concerts are always free and open to all.