Volume CXXXIII, Number 17 February 22, 2002 f

Students to perform with Midcoast Orchestra
CONOR WILLIAMS
STAFF WRITER

This coming Sunday, February 24 the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra will perform several concertos with Bowdoin students as soloists. The orchestra is composed of Bowdoin students, faculty, and members of the coastal community and will be accompanying violinist Katie Miller and clarinetist David Sohn, both Bowdoin sophomores. The MSO has been a part of the Bowdoin community since 1999 and has been in existence for over a decade under the guidance of Music Director and Conductor Paul Ross.

A former member of the National Orchestra in Washington D.C., Miller spent six years in the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra's Senior Orchestra, as well as her final two as concertmistress. Miller, who began studying the violin at age three, plans to major in psychology and visual art/art history, though she hopes to "continue to play the violin and maybe join an orchestra [after graduating]." Miller will perform Scherzo-Tarantelle by the 19th-century composer Henryk Wieniawski.

Sohn began his studies on the clarinet in 1995, in his second year of junior high, in Daegu, South Korea. Planning to major in biochemistry and economics, he hopes to attend medical school and continue playing the clarinet if possible. He will be performing Weber's Concerto No. 1 with the Orchestra. Sohn is a member of the MSO as well.

The students were selected competitively through auditions before Bowdoin Music Department Chair Mary Hunter and Ross last September. The Bowdoin College Concerto Competition has been held annually for several years.

The concert will also include works Mozart's Sinfonia Conertante for Winds and Strings, music from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt, and a "mystery piece" whose composer and name are unknown to both the orchestra and the audience. Guesses will be fielded at the concert on Sunday and the piece's identity will be revealed following the concert.

The concert will begin at 3:00 p.m. in Pickard Theatre and is free to all audience members 21 and under. Advance tickets can be bought for $7 for faculty and staff at Smith Union. For more information, visit the MSO website, www.musarts.net/mso or call 846-6685.