Gold-medal violinist headlines Clinton Symphony concert in Sterling

Violinist Sirena Huang will perform the same piece that won her gold this summer at an international competition when she appears as the featured soloist in the Clinton Symphony Orchestra’s concert Saturday at Sterling High School’s Centennial Auditorium.

The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.

Huang will perform Dvorak’s Violin Concerto in A Minor, which she played Sept. 24 in the finals of The Indianapolis, a quadrennial international violin competition that’s been held in Indianapolis since 1982. This year’s competition included a violinists from 14 nations.

In addition to the gold medal in the competition, Huang was also awarded eight of the 11 special prizes.

Huang, who is 28, has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

As a competition violinist she was awarded top prize at the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, won the New York Concert Artist Worldwide debut audition, was gold medalist of the sixth International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, the top prize winner at the Singapore International Violin Competition and won the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition.

“We booked Sirena Huang after she had won the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition in 2017, but then the pandemic hit,” said Robert Whipple, the Clinton Symphony’s Executive Director said. “We’re delighted that the re-scheduling comes so closely after her triumph in Indianapolis.”

The symphony and Community State Bank have arranged for a bus from Clinton, Iowa, that will make stops in Fulton and Morrison for people needing transportation to attend the concert. Reservations are required, and can be made by calling 563-219-8084.

Tickets for the concert are available at the door. Adult admission is $20, and all students are admitted free of charge. Any adult who accompanies a student will be admitted for half price.

Full information and program notes are always available on the Symphony’s website at www.clintonsymphony.org.

The orchestra includes musicians from eastern Iowa and northwest Illinois. This will be the second concert of its 69th season.

The program

Music director and conductor Brian Dollinger will lead the orchestra in Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll” and Mendelssohn’s Symphony #3, known as his “Scottish” symphony that was dedicated to Queen Victoria.

The Wagner piece was first performed by an ensemble on the stairway outside the room of his second wife, following the birth of their son Siegfried. Many of its motifs appear later in his opera “Siegfried.”

Mendelssohn traveled widely, and often to Britain. This piece is a reflection of his visits to Scotland.