SYMPHONY BRINGS VARIETY THIS SEASON
INLAND VALLEY:

Featuring a 12-year-old virtuoso violinist
who has been playing since he was 4.
01:05 AM PDT on Friday, October 24, 2003

TEMECULA -

The music director and conductor of the Inland Valley Symphony Jeanine Atwood, is taking on a Giuseppe Verdi piece for a large orchestra and also Czardas for Violin and Orchestra by Vittorio Monti. "It's a very exciting piece," Atwood said.

The featured soloist is a prodigious 12-year old, Antonio Pontarelli. Antonio, who attends private school in Temecula and began playing the violin at age four. He was recently honored by John Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth as a state finalist and is enrolled in an honors class at USC for biotechnology and bio-science.

Greta Pontarelli, Antonio's mother, said that the young violinist has composed his own improvisational piece, the cadenza, or the beginning of the Monti piece. The cadenza portion is where the artist is expected to show his or her own artistry.

Antonio is the concertmaster of the San Diego Youth Symphony Symphonic Orchestra and plays first violin for the Young Musicians Debut Orchestra formerly known as the “Disney Orchestra”. He comes from a lineage of musicians. His grandfather Hans Stumpf, a musicologist, is a world class pianist and organist. "I really love the Gypsy music," "It has the passion, the fire, the heart of the Hungarian music."

Music Director Atwood says she searches for a variety of music to form the repertoire of the group. "It has to be attractive. Attractive to not only the musicians who have to work for months on the program," she said, "but also for the audience." The format for the concerts is generally the same, said Atwood. The program starts with an overture, then a soloist, then the centerpiece, which, this weekend, will be Brahms' monumental Symphony No. 4. "There is no finer or beautiful work in the repertoire," she said. "As a conductor, it is close to my heart." Atwood also chooses something lighter for the audience, she said. Selections from the musical, "My Fair Lady" by Frederick Loewe, are also in this weekend's program.

There are pre-concert talks a half-hour before the beginning of every performance. At the February concerts, Youth Concerto Competition winners will perform. Several young performers in the area will be selected based on musical ability.

By SHANNON STARR / The Press-Enterprise