Symphony features cello soloist
Beethoven's “Symphony No. 5” will be featured at the upcoming Butler County Symphony Orchestra concert. The “Beethoven at 250” concert will take place on Saturday in the Butler Intermediate High School auditorium, 551 Fairground Hill Road.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.
A pre-concert lecture will be given by music director and conductor Matthew Kraemer at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium.
The evening's selections will also include “Don Quixote” by Strauss featuring soloist Roman Mekinulov playing cello.
Mekinulov, a native of Leningrad, Russia, began cello studies at the age of 5 at the Leningrad Music School. At age 12 and 14, he was a winner of the Young Artists Competition of Leningrad.
In 1985, he was presented in the Winner's Showcase at the Great Philharmonic Hall in Leningrad. At 16, Mekinulov entered the Rimsky-Korsakov College.
As a chamber musician, he has performed with various ensembles, and, in 1988, was awarded first prize in the Leningrad Chamber Music Competition.
In 1989, he immigrated to the United States and continued his studies at the Juilliard School in New York, where he has successfully completed bachelor's and master's degrees.
As an active recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist, Mekinulov has performed extensively throughout the United States, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Germany, France, Greece, Denmark, Switzerland, as well as his native Russia.
He has garnered many awards, and in 2001 was appointed principal cellist of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, where in the past five years he has been featured numerous times as a soloist and appeared in more than 60 concerts of chamber music around western New York as well as with Jupiter Chamber Players in New York City.
Tickets for the Saturday concert are available at www.butlersymphony.org or at the symphony office, 259 S. Main St. Tickets are $25 for adults and $8 for students and children. A “Sweetheart Special” buy one, get one half off deal is available with the code “beloved.”
