Urbana, Ill. (WCIA)

On Saturday, June 10 at 7 p.m., Urbana Pops Orchestra will perform a free concert in the auditorium at Urbana High School at 1002 S. Race Street. Happily Ever After will feature music based on story book themes and works showcasing youth musicians.

“The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” by Benjamin Britten was originally produced as a film using music written by Henry Purcell,” said UPO Conductor Stephen L. Larson. “Britten intended it to be an educational piece to help children recognize the different instruments that make up an orchestra, but the themes and variations are beautiful on their own. And because it highlights the sections—the woodwinds, brass, strings, and percussion—it makes you appreciate each musician who comes together to create such a complex orchestral sound.”

Larson said in keeping with the tradition for someone well-known to participate in the performance, Urbana Mayor Diane Wolfe Marlin will narrate the piece.

Sora Corro, a 13-year-old pianist, is this year’s winner of the Chambana International Music Competition concerto division. She will perform the third movement of Dmitry Kabalevsky’s “Concerto No. 3 for Piano and Orchestra.”

Members from the cast of this year’s Urbana Park District Youth Summer Theatre will share two songs from this year’s production of “Beauty and the Beast,” accompanied by the orchestra.

A lesser-known piece, Roger Quilter’s “A Children’s Overture,” weaves together the tunes to 12 nursery rhymes while the “Overture from Hänsel und Gretel,” by Engelbert Humperdinck is a familiar classical piece.

And, Bow-Dacious String Band, one of the youth ensembles at C4A: Community Center for the Arts, will play several short pieces within the concert joined by string players from Campus Middle School Girls school.

Urbana Pops Orchestra has been offering free concerts, recitals, and educational opportunities in Champaign-Urbana since 2010. The ensemble’s goals are to perform high-quality light classical and pops repertoire for free and to provide a setting for talented youth musicians to learn from seasoned professionals.

UPO is affiliated with the Urbana Park District and Urbana School District #116. For more information, visit www.UrbanaPops.org. UPO acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, an Urbana Arts & Culture grant, and many generous donors.