Orchestra features young musicians

The CWOTO Orchestra will present its Opus 17 concerts this weekend, Fri., Jan. 12 and Sun., Jan. 14.

The performance is sponsored by Concertos with Orchestra, Thousand Oaks, a nonprofit educational organization.

The Friday concert will be at 7:30 p.m. at Camarillo United Methodist Church, 291 Anacapa Drive. This performance is free with freewill offerings accepted.

The Sunday 2:30 p.m. matinee will be at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, Scherr Forum Theatre, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. Tickets are $20 general and $10 students and seniors age 60 and up. Tickets will be available in the theater lobby one hour prior to the performance.

The professional orchestra will be led by guest conductor Burns Taft. Taft is the head of the performing arts department at Ventura College, the conductor of the Ventura Master Chorale and the founder of the Ventura Music Festival.

Young artists ages 10 to 19 playing flute, violin and piano will perform as featured soloists.

Daniel Chien, 10, will play the Bach Violin Concerto in A minor while Joshua Hong, 16, of Westlake Village, will play the Tchaikovsky Violin Concert. Pianist Heidy Wang, of Agoura High School, will be featured in the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2.

Moorpark College student Greg Fleishman will perform a Beethoven piano concerto and Maize Wang, a student at Oak Park High School, will play the fifth concerto.

Giselle Chang, of Calabasas, will be featured in the SaintSaens "Allegro Appassionato," and Ty Fovel of Westlake High School will be the soloist in Faure's "Fantasy for Flute."

For more information, call (805) 376-2485 or visit www.cwoto.org.