Rising star featured in TOCCATA concerts

RENO — Brilliant young pianist Yirong Wang joins TOCCATA-Tahoe Symphony Orchestra and Chorus for Grieg’s delightful “Piano Concerto in A Minor.”

Favorite local soloist Bruce Kanzelmeyer present Mozart’s “Horn Concerto #3” and selected arias and duets will be presented by Joy Strotz and Owen MacIntosh. And the full orchestra stuns with Tchaikovsky’s passionate “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture.” Choose from performances in Incline, Gardnerville, South Lake Tahoe, and Reno, from June 2 to 9.

Grieg’s delightful “Piano Concerto” is as pure and lovely as the Norwegian countryside that inspired it. Filled with lustrous, warm, heart-melting melodies, it also shows off the soloist’s virtuosic abilities, as keyboard fireworks bring the work to a triumphant close. As Tchaikovsky wrote, “It is not surprising that everyone should delight in Grieg.”

Soloist Yirong Wang, a senior piano performance major at USC’s prestigious Thornton School of Music, began studying piano at age 4. She has won top prizes in competitions in the U.S., as well as in Germany and her native China. She has performed in Shanghai Concert Hall and Carmel’s Sunset Center, and also in numerous international music festivals, including Lang Lang’s China Recital Tour. The Grieg concerto allows her to show off her passion and brilliant technique.

At the heart of Mozart’s “Horn Concerto #3” is a beautiful melody, in which our soloist shows his gift for singing tone and great expressivity. The opening movement is livelier; and the finale is pure hunting horn, as rollicking and energetic as a good canter. Soloist Bruce Kanzelmeyer, who has lived in Reno since 1982, has served as principal horn in the Pittsburgh Symphony, taught horn at Carnegie Mellon University, and performed with professional orchestras in the Southwest and Mexico. Bruce, who’s TOCCATA-Tahoe’s principal horn, frequently plays with Reno Pops, Philharmonic, and Chamber Orchestra, and Nevada Opera.

Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture” depicts the timeless story so vividly, you’ll feel as though you’re watching a movie. Sink into the solemn chorale evoking Friar Lawrence; the contrast between family strife and the lovers’ passion; the wild street scene and fights; and the famous love theme that just keeps getting lusher and more poignant until the end.

Tickets are $30 for adults ($40 preferred seating); $25 for seniors; free for youth under 23 ($15 preferred seating). Donations of any size are always appreciated: ticket sales don’t cover our expenses.

The concert schedule is: Sunday, June 2, 4 p.m., Incline Village – The Chateau, 955 Fairway Blvd.; Tuesday, June 4, 7 p.m., Gardnerville – Trinity Lutheran Church, 1480 Douglas Ave.; Friday, June 7, 7 p.m., South Lake Tahoe – St. Theresa Catholic Church, 1041 Lyons Ave. Sunday, June 9, 4 p.m., Reno – South Reno United Methodist Church, 200 De Spain Lane.

For information, call 775-298-6989; visit us at www.ToccataTahoe.org or https://www.facebook.com/toccatatahoe/, or e-mail us at ToccataTahoe@gmail.com.