Press Release: Season Finale Concert

The Northern Utah Youth Symphony and Chamber Orchestras will present their season finale concert Monday, May 17th, 2021, at 5:30 pm, at Box Elder High School. Admission is free, thanks to our season sponsors, and there are no limits to the size of the audience as long as masks are worn properly for the whole time, and we contact-trace the audience. Contact tracing is simple - just visit our audience registration post on our website https://www.northernutahyouthsymphony.org/2021/05/audienceregistration.html.

The Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Nathan West will open the concert with The Three B's: arrangements of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, Brahms Themes from Symphony No. 1, and Beethoven's King Stephan Overture.

The Youth Symphony will then take the stage, featuring their brass and percussion in Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, then featuring many soloists from the orchestra in Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol, and Richard Wagner's Overture to Die Meistersinger. There will also be a special feature of a string quartet from members of the orchestra, and their concert master, Natalie Nef, will perform Weiniawski's Violin Concerto No. 2. 

The orchestras are a project of the Lake Bonneville Symphonic Society, based in Brigham City, and supported by the George S and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation, Utah Arts & Museums with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Box Elder Tourism Tax Advisory Board. Musicians come largely from Cache, Weber and Box Elder Counties. Thank you to their business sponsors for this season: Classical Strings, Edge Orthodontics, BrainTrainUT, PetsFirst! Wellness Center, and Curtis Financial & Tax Management, Inc. 

Featured soloist Natalie Nef:

Natalie is a senior at Weber High School.  Natalie is a member of the Weber High School varsity swim team (four time letterman), soccer team (defender of the year and team captain), and honor society. Natalie has been school concert master for six years. She has received superior marks at region and state solo and ensemble in piano and violin for 3 years. She has been in the district high school honor orchestra for ten years and All State Orchestra. Natalie has received superior marks at ASTA competitions at Utah State and Weber State multiple times. Natalie has competed at federation at the University of Utah for four years scoring superior ratings. She was the Ogden Youth Symphony Concerto winner in 2017, where she soloed with them and the Weber State University Symphony. Natalie won the Ogden Symphony Ballet Youth Benefit Concert Competition 2017 and 2019. She was also the recipient of the Jean Poll music scholarship in 2017 and took second in the American Protégé International Concerto competition 2018, 2019, and 2020. Natalie was able to solo at Carnegie Hall June 2018, May 2019, and will be performing December 2021. Natalie has been a UTMA winner in both piano and violin. She has been a member of the Northern Utah Youth Symphony for seven years, with whom she has won their concerto competition twice.  Natalie also has played with the New American Philharmonic. She also is an accomplished piano and organ player. She studies violin under David Porter. Natalie will be continuing her violin studies at the Jacob’s School of Music at Indiana University, where she received the Presidential Scholarship.