The Missouri University of Science and Technology University and Community Symphony Orchestra and the Missouri S&T Chamber Orchestra will perform a spring concert at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 20, in Leach Theater of Castleman Hall, 10th and Main streets in Rolla. The orchestra will be conducted by Dr. Robert J. Cesario, assistant professor of arts, languages and philosophy.

Tickets are $5 for the public and free for S&T students and youth age 18 and younger. They can be purchased at the door the night of the performance.

“Erica Westenberg will be our featured soloist, playing the Vieuxtemps Concerto No. 5 for violin and orchestra. She is a graduating senior at Rolla High School and has been our concertmaster for the last three years,” says Cesario. “She is an amazingly talented young woman with some really significant accomplishments in her young life.”

The Chamber Orchestra will begin the program with Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, by J. S. Bach and Niltshi: The Voice of the Wind, by Robert S. Frost.

“The Niltshi piece is a programmatic description of the ‘Scenic Wonders’ of Utah, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands National Park and Monument Valley,” says Cesario. “It’s all held together by ‘the voice of the wind’ depicted in the opening of the piece.”

In addition to the concerto featuring Westenberg, the Symphony Orchestra will play English Folk Song Suite, by Ralph Vaughan-Williams and Russian Easter Overture, by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

The orchestras will give an additional concert this spring at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 1. Jing Chang, a young Chinese pianist married to Dr. Zhen Liu, assistant professor in engineering management and systems engineering at S&T, will join the orchestras for two movements of The Yellow River Concerto.

For more information, contact Cesario at cesarior@mst.edu, or call the Missouri S&T performing arts office at 573-341-4185.