Greenwich Village Orchestra Performs Eastern Romance Featuring Violinist Ming-Feng Hsin In Glazunov's Violin Concerto

The Greenwich Village Orchestra (GVO) continues its 2018-2019 season with Eastern Romance, led by Music Director Barbara Yahr, on Sunday, February 24, 2019 at 3:00pm at All Saints Church. The program features longtime Metropolitan Opera Orchestra violinist Ming-Feng Hsin leading the GVO in Dvo k's moving Romance and as soloist in Glazunov's elegant Violin Concerto. The concert concludes with Rachmaninoff's rhapsodic Third Symphony.

A native of Taiwan, Ming Feng Hsin's musical career began as a violin soloist after winning the Glasgow International Violin Competition at the age of 15. He subsequently soloed with the Scottish National Orchestra and the BBC Orchestra and was hailed by the Scotsman as "destined to be one of the giants of the next generation." A prot g of Yehudi Menuhin, Mr. Hsin has performed throughout Europe, America and Asia as both soloist and chamber musician. Mr. Hsin is also an accomplished conductor. After getting a conducting degree from Juilliard with Otto Werner Mueller, he has worked with numerous orchestras throughout the world, and has led productions of the operas Aida, Flying Dutchman, La Boheme, and Ballo in Maschera. A member of the first violin section of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for the past 18 years, Mr. Hsin is married to his colleague in the orchestra Wen Qian, and together they have two young children, Thomas 5 and Olivia 3.

Future GVO concerts this season include Orchestral Brilliance on Sunday, April 7, 2019 at 3:00pm featuring bass trombonist George Curran in Chris Brubeck's Prague Concerto; The Earth In Context on Sunday, May 19, 2019 at 3:00pm featuring principal trumpet Phil Parsons and English hornist Jason Smoller in Copland's Quiet City; and a chamber music concert on March 15, 2019 at the Tenri Cultural Institute.

Now in its 32nd season, the GVO is committed to making music at the highest possible level and enriching the lives of both players and audience through emotionally charged, exhilarating performances. The GVO was founded in 1986 by a group of musicians from the New York Metropolitan area. The 70-member community orchestra is made up of accountants, actors, artists, attorneys, carpenters, editors, physicians, professors, photographers, computer programmers, retirees, scientists, students, and teachers, among others. Now in it's 32nd season, the GVO is committed to making music at the highest possible level and enriching the lives of both players and audience through emotionally charged, exhilarating performances.

The GVO regularly performs with internationally acclaimed soloists. In recent years, the orchestra has performed alongside soloists such as violinists Andr s C rdenes, Itamar Zorman, and Hye-Jin Kim; cellists Edward Arron, Raman Ramakrishnan, David Heiss, and Brook Speltz; soprano Christine Goerke; mezzo-sopranos Jennifer Johnson Cano and Naomi O'Connell; baritone Jesse Blumberg; trumpet soloist Brandon Ridenour; and more.

Now in her seventeenth season with the GVO, Music Director Barbara Yahr continues to lead the orchestra to new levels of distinction. With blockbuster programming and internationally renowned guest artists, the GVO under Barbara's baton, has grown into an innovative, collaborative institution offering a full season of classical music to our local community.

A native of New York, Yahr's career has spanned from the United States to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Her previous posts include Principal Guest Conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra, Resident Staff Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony under Maestro Lorin Maazel and conductor of the Pittsburgh Youth Orchestra. She has appeared as a guest conductor with such orchestras as the Bayerische Rundfunk, Dusseldorf Symphoniker, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Frankfurt Radio, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Janacek Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, and the National Symphony in Washington D.C. She has also conducted the orchestra in Anchorage, Calgary, Chattanooga, Columbus, Detroit, Flint, Louisiana, New Mexico, Lubbock, Richmond as well as the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber, Rochester Philharmonic, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony and the Chautauqua Festival Symphony Orchestra. She has also appeared in Israel conducting in both Jerusalem and Elat and as an opera conductor, has led new productions in Frankfurt, Giessen, Tulsa, Cincinnati, Minnesota and at The Mannes School of Music in NYC. She has coached the actors on the set of the Amazon Series, Mozart in the Jungle, and last season, conducted the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Yahr is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Middlebury College where she studied piano and philosophy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Conducting from the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Max Rudolf and an MM in Music Theory from the Manhattan School of Music. She was a student of Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School in Hancock, Maine.

Yahr's commitment to finding new ways to reach a broader population with music ultimately led her into the field of music therapy. She is a Board Certified Music Therapist, with an MA in music therapy from NYU and post-graduate certification from the world-renowned Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy in New York City. Her pioneering, community music therapy project, Together in Music, brings orchestral music to the special needs community with uniquely interactive programs. Barbara is married to Alex Lerman and has two adult step-children, Abe and Dania, and a 16 year-old son, Ben.