Houston Symphony's 2016 Youth Orchestra Festival to Showcase Popular Works

Three of Houston's most talented youth orchestras will participate in the Houston Symphony's third annual Youth Orchestra Festival with free performances of popular concert works on the Jones Hall stage starting at 3 p.m. April 9.

The concert will begin with a performance of Haydn's Symphony No. 45, Farewell, by the Virtuosi of Houston Young Artists Chamber Orchestra. The work was written as a result of a management-labor issue between the composer's patron, Hungarian prince Nikolaus Esterházy, and Haydn's musicians when their stay at the prince's summer palace became longer than expected. Instead of directing the concern to his employer, Haydn requested his entourage's return to Austria through the music.

Next on the program, the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts Orchestra will perform Shostakovich's jubilant Overture Festivo, which was commissioned to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, as well as the first and fourth movements from Dvorák's Symphony No. 9. Often regarded as his most popular symphony, Symphony No. 9 is also known as From the New World because Dvo?ák wrote it during the time he spent in New York City while serving as the director of the National Conservatory of Music in the 1890s.

The last orchestra to perform during the festival will be the Houston Youth Symphony. They will perform the first, fourth and fifth movements of French composer Hector Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, a well-known piece of the early Romantic period.

The concert will take place at Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, 615 Louisiana Street, in Houston's Theater District. For tickets and information, call (713) 224-7575 or visit www.houstonsymphony.org. Tickets may also be purchased at the Houston Symphony Patron Services Center in Jones Hall (Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.). All programs and artists are subject to change.