Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra concert features young soloists

WEST HARTFORD — The Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra will introduce three gifted young musicians as soloists in the Beethoven “Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano in C Major,” Saturday, Jan. 20, 7:30 p.m., at the Hoffman Auditorium, University of St. Joseph, 1678 Asylum Ave., West Hartford. A pre-concert complimentary Champagne Reception will be held at 6:30 p.m.

Violin soloist Natalie Hodges, from Colorado, is a junior at Harvard University concentrating in English and Music. She won the Denver Young Artists Concerto Competition in 2013, performed at Carnegie Hall in 2014 and has studied and performed at the Aspen Music Festival for several summers. She is concert master of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra.

Cello soloist, Leland Ko, from Weston, MA, is a student at Princeton University where in addition to his music he is a dedicated tennis player having played on the USTA circuit for much of his youth. He toured across Europe as co-principal cellist of the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and has studied at the New England Conservatory and the Perlman Music Program in New York.

The piano soloist, Simon Peter Varallyay, was born in Budapest in 1997 and began piano studies at the age of 6 in Hungary. Last year he was a student at the Franz Lizst Academy of Music in Budapest and won numerous prizes in music competitions in Europe before coming to the United States.

The three young soloists, presented in cooperation with the WISE Foundation, will be featured in the Beethoven “Triple Concerto,” an unusual combination of violin, cello and piano as solo instruments for a concerto with orchestra that no other major classical composer used.

The concert, to be conducted by FVSO Music Director Jonathan Brennand, will also present Haydn’s “Overture to Armida” and “Prelude to Winter from the Seasons,” Mozart’s “Overture to the Abduction from the Seraglio” and Beethoven’s “Leonore Overture No. 3.”

Tickets at $18 for adults, $15 for students and seniors, can be purchased in advance by visiting the web site: All ticketS at the door are $20. Further information is available on the web site or by calling 800-975-FVSO.