Guest cellists to perform Sunday with Willmar Area Symphonic Orchestra

WILLMAR - The Willmar Area Symphonic Orchestra presents "Almost All Baroque" at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Willmar Education and Arts Center in Willmar. Favorite works by Bach, Pachelbel and Vivaldi will be performed.

Two guest artists will be on stage with the orchestra. Pitnarry Shin, a cellist with the Minnesota Orchestra, will be performing Joseph Haydn's Cello Concerto in C Major. Joining Shin on the stage to perform Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Cellos will be Madeline Sheard, a senior at Maple Grove Senior High who studies cello with Mina Fisher.

Shin was a member of the Minnesota Orchestra from 2001-2006. She left to pursue doctoral studies in New York at Stony Brook University. While there, she regularly performed with the New York Philharmonic. When she returned to the Twin Cities in 2012, she won reappointment to the Minnesota Orchestra.

According to her Minnesota Orchestra bio, Shin was 7 years old when her family moved to New York from Korea. She has studied music at the Curtis Institute, Yale University and Juilliard. A Fulbright scholarship allowed her to continue her studies in Germany. She is married to Kyu-Young Kim, principal second violin and director of artistic planning with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Sheard is the 2017 winner of the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies concerto competition and was a Classical Minnesota Public Radio Showcase Artist and Audience Favorite in the 2017 Minnesota Varsity competition.

She won first prize in the prestigious Schubert Club Scholarship Competition in Senior High Strings in 2017 and Junior High Strings in 2015. Madeline enjoys playing as principal cellist for the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies and will be touring Germany, Poland and Hungary with them this summer.

One of Madeline's performance highlights has been to play in the pit orchestra for the 2015 Barn Theatre's production of Fiddler on the Roof, under the baton of her grandfather, Dennis Benson of Willmar.

Tickets are available in advance at Whitney Music, online at www.willmarorchestra.com or at the door. Adult tickets are $10, ages 5-18 are $5, under 5 are admitted free, and a family pack of two adults and unlimited children is $25.

1/4: Erica Dischino / Tribune Stephen Ramsey conducts the symphony orchestra during a dress rehearsal Tuesday for the Willmar Area Symphonic Concert scheduled Sunday at the Willmar Education and Arts Center.

2/4: Erica Dischino / Tribune Pitnarry Shin, a cellist with the Minnesota Orchestra, performs a solo during a dress rehearsal Tuesday for the Willmar Area Symphonic Concert that will be performed Sunday at the Willmar Education and Arts Center.

3/4: Erica Dischino / Tribune Pitnarry Shin, a cellist with the Minnesota Orchestra, performs a solo during a dress rehearsal Tuesday for the Willmar Area Symphonic Concert set for Sunday at the Willmar Education and Arts Center.

4/4: Erica Dischino / Tribune Madeline Sheard, a young cellist from Maple Grove, performs during a dress rehearsal Tuesday for the Willmar Area Symphonic Concert. Sheard is the granddaughter of Dennis and Dar Benson, of Willmar. She will perform Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Cellos with Pitnarry Shin, a cellist with the Minnesota Orchestra.