Westborough – The 16th annual concert of the Vivaldi Cello Festival Orchestra will take place Sunday, June 19, at the Congregational Church, 57 W. Main St., in Westborough at 4 p.m.
The purpose of the event is to give local young musicians an opportunity to perform with a professional orchestra as a soloist in a formal concert setting. Boston professional musicians who come together each year as the Vivaldi Festival Orchestra accompany the featured soloists. Works by Vivaldi, St. Saens, Haydn and Dvorak will be performed. Paul Dulude, director of the Boston Virtuosi, owner of New England Violins in Boston, is the conductor.
Local students featured in the concert are Westborough High School students Michael Barbini (grade 10), Michelle Li (grade 10) and Maxwell Polich (grade 11); Thomas Zhang (grade 7) from Sarah W. Gibbons Middle School in Westborough; and Derin Iscan (grade 8) from the Fay School in Southborough.
Parents and local businesses and organizations sponsor the performance. The concert is free, and donations are encouraged and gratefully received.
Five of the cellists are students of Maryan McClelland Pietropaolo of Westborough. Pietropaolo attended Carnegie Mellon, graduated from New England Conservatory in Boston, and did graduate studies at Brandeis. She taught cello at University of Lowell, where she was a member of the String Quartet in Residence, and Phillips Exeter Academy for 14 years. She moved to Westborough in 1999 with her husband, Joe Pietropaolo, who was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra viola section for 39 years. Pietropaolo has her cello studio in Westborough. The concert is in memory of Joseph Pietropaolo.
Photos/submitted