Pops Concert celebrates composer John Williams
The Merced Symphony’s annual Pops Concert will be 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Merced Theatre, 301 W. Main St.
The music of popular modern composer John Williams will be featured, so the program has a definite Hollywood flair. Conductor Ming Luke will lead the orchestra in themes from “Jurassic Park,” “Star Wars,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Star Trek,” “The Godfather,” “Harry Potter” and more, according to a Merced Symphony press release. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. at the theater, 301 W. Main St.
Also featured in the program are the two 2014 Youth Audition winners, Amy Deng and Jessica Yeung.
Deng is an eighth-grader at Rolling Hills Middle School in El Dorado Hills. She started piano lessons at age 2 and is studying with CSU Sacramento professor Richard Cionco. Deng was a first-place winner in a number of piano competitions, including the Ghiglieri Piano Competition, the Music in the Mountain Young Musicians Competition, and the Auburn Symphony Young Artist Competition. Deng has also studied and performed at two international summer music festivals in Italy and Germany. She will perform the second movement from Piano Concerto No. 2 by Shostakovich.
Yeung, 15, is a sophomore at Da Vinci Charter Academy in Davis. She began piano studies at age 4, and from 2003-13 was under the private instruction of Huei-Ping Chen Lin. She has been studying with Cionco since 2013. Yeung has performed in prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She has won numerous piano competitions, including Junior First Prize at the Orfeo International Music Competition in Vipiteno, Italy; first place in the Festival of New American Music Competition at CSU Sacramento in both 2011 and 2014; and first place in the Classical Masters Music Festival Piano Competition in Folsom. Most recently, Yeung attended the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Piano Program last summer. Yeung will perform the third movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21, according to the release.
Tickets for the Pops Concert are $39 for adults and $14 for students (with school identification). Tickets can be purchased at the Merced Theatre box office or online at mercedtheatre.org.
This story was originally published January 16, 2015 at 4:00 AM with the headline "Pops Concert celebrates composer John Williams."