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DAVIDSON INSTITUTE TEENAGE SOLOIST MAKES U.S. PREMIERE
USING UNIQUE CHINESE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT AT THE
RENO PHILHARMONIC’S CLASSIX TWO

 

RENO, Nev. (September 2013) Music director Laura Jackson and the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra welcome the talents of 18-year-old Davidson Fellow Reylon Yount playing the yangqin for Classix Two Sunday, Oct. 6 and Tuesday, Oct. 8 at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts. The yangqin is a Chinese stringed instrument of the dulcimer, or struck zither family, featuring a trapezoidal wooden body that is played with bamboo beaters.


Featured soloist Reylon Yount, of San Francisco, was named a Davidson Fellow in 2011, receiving a $10,000 scholarship from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development. The Davidson Institute is a national non-profit organization based in Reno, Nev., whose mission is to support profoundly gifted young people (DavidsonGifted.org). The Davidson Institute underwrites Yount’s performances with the Reno Philharmonic.

 

Yount will also perform in the Reno Philharmonic’s Family Concert, a family-friendly concert held at the Pioneer Center Saturday, Oct. 5.

 

Reylon began playing the yangqin when he was 8years old and completed the bulk of his study at the Chinese Arts and Music Center in San Francisco. He also studied with world-renowned yangqin master Professor He Huang at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music in the summers of 2010 and 2011. In this concert series, Yount performs the U.S. premiere of a work composed by Huang, Spirit of the Yellow Earth, a concerto written for the yangqin and orchestra. He enjoys performing at various local venues, as well as participating in Chinese music competitions held annually in San Jose, Calif.

 

“So many people come up to me with the same reaction of astonishment,” says Yount. “They say, ‘I've never seen an instrument like that before. It sounds so different and so beautiful.’ My goal is to kindle this intrigued spark into an interest in and openness towards Chinese music and culture as well as world music in general.”


Classix Two on Oct. 6 and Oct. 8 also features the Suite from Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 12 op. 112 “The Year of 1917.”


All Classix performances take place in the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts at 100 S. Virginia St. in downtown Reno. Before both Classix Two performances, music director and conductor Laura Jackson offers a pre-concert talk that includes information about the composers, musicians and works the orchestra will perform. The preview is free for all ticket holders and begins Sunday at 3 p.m. in the main hall (doors open at 2:30 p.m.) and Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the exhibition hall (doors open at 6 p.m.) at the Pioneer Center. Tickets range from $26 to $77. Transaction fees may apply. Purchase tickets online at www.renophil.com.

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Summary of Calendar Information

Classix Two Featuring Davidson Fellow Reylon Yount, yangqin
Sunday, October 6, 2013, 4 PM; Tuesday, October 8, 7:30 PM; Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, Reno, NV

Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring
He Huang: Spirit of the Yellow Earth - Concerto for Yangqin and Orchestra
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 12, op. 112 “The Year of 1917”


REYLON YOUNT, YANGQIN
Fellow, Davidson Institute for Talent Development


Davidson Institute for Talent Development
9665 Gateway Drive, Suite B
Reno, Nevada 89521
775-852-3483
Fax: 775-852-2184
www.DavidsonGifted.org