COSTA MESA — Young pianist, composer, and philanthropist Valerie Narumi from Yorba Linda will perform with the Pacific Symphony on Saturday, April 18, at its Family Musical Mornings season finale, “Beethoven Lives Upstairs,” the internationally acclaimed production from Classical Kids Live.
Presented by Farmers and Merchants Bank, the concert is designed especially for kids ages 5-11, and takes place at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa. Tickets are $19-39; for more information or to purchase tickets, call (714) 755-5799 or visit www.PacificSymphony.org.
Pacific Symphony Assistant Conductor Alejandro Gutiérrez has invited Narumi and violinist Danielle Liu from Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra to be the featured soloists. Narumi performs all of the piano sonata and concerto excerpts in the concert, and Liu is featured on the “Spring: Sonata and the Romance for Violin and Orchestra.
Maestro Gutierrez notes, “In our concert, we will enjoy the vast range of Beethoven’s music and emotions. For example, we will hear the beauty expressed in sorrow in his funeral march from the Symphony No. 7 and experience Beethoven’s internal drama in his Fifth Symphony. We will also enjoy the beauty of his sentimental Piano Sonata in E Major, the playfulness in his Symphonies Nos. 1 and 8, the gorgeous second movement of his ‘Pathétique’ Piano Sonata and the angelical sound of the second movement of his Symphony No. 4.
“We will experience Beethoven’s love for nature in his Symphony No. 6, ‘The Pastoral,’ the incredible crafting of his Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 5, and Beethoven’s hope for brotherhood and love for the entire world through his amazing ‘Ode of Joy’ from his Symphony No. 9.”
Narumi is the principal pianist for the 2014-2015 Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra and a member of the Pacific Symphony Youth Ensembles Composer Program. In 2013, she also appeared as a featured pianist with the Pacific Symphony, performing for six Frieda Belinfante Class Act Youth Concerts, and in 2012, she performed for the Pacific Symphony League as a special guest artist.
She holds a licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music and a diploma in piano performance with distinction from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, and has been accepted to the Music Teachers’ Association of California (MTAC) Young Composers Guild for 2015-2020. She is also a Yamaha Junior Advance Course graduate and since 2005 has performed original solo and ensemble works at ten Yamaha Junior Original Concerts across the U.S. and Canada.
Narumi is a 10th-grade student at Valencia High School in Placentia and an honor roll student in its Pre-International Baccalaureate/Tech program. She is a Raytheon MathMovesU middle-school scholarship recipient and a national and regional winner for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)/Toshiba ExploraVision science competition.
She volunteers her musical talents for her community. She performed for the “Rainbow from L.A. Charity Concert 2012 for Japan” fundraiser at Yamaha Irvine, and in 2011 she organized and performed a charity recital to benefit a Japan Relief Fund at Koyasan Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles. She has been honored twice with the President’s Volunteer Service Award, Gold Level for her outstanding community service.