By Megan Alley
Sun Reporter
All are invited to attend this weekend’s free strings concert at Cranston Memorial Presbyterian Church in New Richmond.
The church is located at 200 Union Street.
The event, which will be held on Oct. 20 at 2 p.m., will be the inaugural concert of the Starling String Foundation series, featuring the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
The concert will feature romantic and virtuoso music from composers Felix Mendelssohn, George Gershwin, Frédéric Chopin and more.
Admission to the concert is free, but donations for the music program will be appreciated.
New Richmond restaurant owner and Cranston church member Robert Lees has been instrumental in bringing the music to New Richmond.
Lees served as a board member of the Dorothy Starling Foundation at UC for four years, and during that stint, the orchestra performed a concert at New Richmond High School and one at the village bandstand.
“Bringing and celebrating classical music to our community is a personal goal of mine. CCM and the Starling Foundation students offer some of the very best and most talented young musicians anywhere in the world,” Lees said in an email. “It’s an honor to have them come to New Richmond to perform for our community.”
Cranston Memorial Presbyterian Church is a perfect venue for concerts like this, Lees explained.
“I’ve been told that the acoustic for string performances is near perfect, and the building is beautiful both inside and outside,” he added.
Lees and concert organizers are hoping for a great turnout, which will help insure a continuation of concerts after this first one.
Zlans are developing for both a Christmas program and for Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to be performed in the spring.
This Sunday’s concert program is listed as:
Shostakovich
Three pieces for two violins and piano; six minutes in length.
Featuring musicians Kurt Sassmannshaus, violin, Boyun Li, violin, and Li Wang, piano.
Mendelssohn
Piano Trio No 1 in D minor, Op.; twenty minutes in length.
1. Allegro con brio
3. Scherzo
Featuring musicians Xin Nie, violin, Peter Ryan, cello, and Jiao Sun, piano.
Frank
Sonata for Violin and Piano; thirteen minutes in length.
I Andante
II Allegro
Gershwin/Heifetz
Summertime; four minutes in length.
It Ain’t Necessarily So; four minutes in length.
Featuring musicians Yuanyuan Guo, violin, and Ming Li, piano.
Chopin/Milstein
Nocturne; four minutes in length.
Jenö Hubay
Nocturne; four minutes in length.
Carmen Fantasy; ten minutes in length
Featuring musicians Boyun Li, violin, and Li Wang, piano.