Plumas Arts and Face the Music Studio have announced the seventh annual Spring Concert of the High Sierra Community Youth Orchestra at the Quincy Elementary School cafeteria Sunday, May 2. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the concert starts at 6:30 p.m.
    The concert is a fundraiser for Plumas Arts and the orchestra, and the proceeds will purchase music for the 2010–2011 orchestra season. Donations are $5 per person or $12 a family.

    This year’s concert is unique as it is going to feature a number of young musicians, Quincy's own harmonica virtuoso, Johnny Walker, the String Beings and the High Sierra Community Youth Orchestra.
    This year’s featured young musicians are: Sylvia Wood, a 9-year-old piano prodigy playing a Beethoven piano sonata and an original composition; 12-year-old Ché Rubalcava-Cunan on guitar; Tallon Sandoval, a 13-year-old fiddling champion from Janesville; and 15-year-old Luis Rubalcava-Cunan on piano performing Franz Liszt's “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.”
    The High Sierra Co-Yo Orchestra will follow the young performers playing “The Second Storm,” “Valse Lyrique,” Guiseppe Verdi's “Anvil Chorus” and “Erin Isle Sketches.”
    During intermission, treats brought by the orchestra members will be available for purchase.
    Johnny Walker will open the second half of the program on his harmonica. Walker’s performance takes harmonica playing to a new level.
    Following Walker, Austin Hagwood will play the “Carnival of Venice” on the trumpet; Caleb Collins will play an original piano composition; Garrett Hagwood will play a Bach sonata unaccompanied; Hadassah Sturley will play piano; and Kelsey Kepple will play “Meditation” on the violin.
    The String Beings Quartet will follow the soloists, and then the High Sierra Community Youth Orchestra will perform again.
     In the second half of the concert the High Sierra Co-Yo Orchestra will play “Medieval Legend,” Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty Waltz,” “Evangeline — Two Cajun Dances” and Mozart's famous “Marriage of Figaro.””
    Quincy is fortunate to have its own orchestra program here. This program resulted from an idea Johnene Mc Donald had to start a stringed instrument program in the schools nearly two decades ago and originally sponsored by a Plumas Arts grant and the Central Plumas Recreation and Park District.
    The program has grown from a beginning stringed instrument program to many ensembles to the orchestra.
    McDonald has taught music in Quincy for 25 years and this program has allowed hundreds of children to get a start on stringed instruments.
    The High Sierra Orchestra is a dream come true: McDonald was fortunate to be a part of the Los Angeles stringed instrument programs on the violin at the age of 8.
    Those programs became unfunded by the time she was 14. McDonald wanted to give children the chance to play violin and cello; this program has blossomed into a huge success.
    McDonald said she was grateful to Plumas Arts and the Central Plumas Recreation and Park District for allowing her to “make a wish come true” for her and many children in the community. The support the community has given her and Face the Music Studio is “tremendous.” McDonald also said she was grateful to all the parents of the children she has taught throughout her 25-year career.