(Contined from Home Page)

3rd Place American Prize in Orchestral Performance/Community Division to The Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra, Orlando Cela Conductor. Practically every Wednesday evening from September to June, members of the Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra gather to rehearse for one of the five concerts they perform in each season. The players range widely in age and experience, but all have in common the love of making music. Depending on the Orchestra’s needs, new members are welcome and no audition is necessary to join. Each new season features a sprinkling of new faces ranging from young students to seniors. Many members are loyal veterans – one violinist played with the Orchestra for 70 years, starting shortly after it was established in 1933! Under the baton of Music Director Orlando Cela, the Orchestra presents its first concert in November.  A joint concert follows in December in which the Orchestra and the Arlington-Belmont Chorale combine forces led by Chorale Music Director Barry Singer and

Maestro Cela. In February, the Orchestra performs a Family Concert designed to inspire youngsters of all ages. In May, the Orchestra and the Chorale are together again to present the Philharmonic Society’s Sponsors’ Concert. The season concludes with the POPS! Concert in June, which features both the Orchestra and the Chorale and is coupled with a delightful pre-concert Strawberry Festival. The Orchestra takes pride in presenting a broad spectrum of the traditional classical repertoire as well as modern works, including local composers. POPS, of course, predominately showcases lighter works taken from the worlds of jazz, show tunes and movie scores. In addition, the instrumental winner of the Philharmonic’s Young Artist Competition (as well as the occasional vocal winner) gets a performance as a soloist with the Orchestra.  These young instrumental soloists span the full range of instruments from piano to violin and never fail to deliver amazing performances.

3rd Place American Prize in Orchestral Programming/Community Division to Orlando Cela, The Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra. Venezuelan conductor Orlando Cela has recently been awarded second place in the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the performance of American music, and second place in the London Classical Soloists Conducting Competition for his rendition of Beethoven’s Seventh and Eighth Symphonies. His experience includes launching the orchestral department at Ningbo University in China and conducting the inaugural concert of the Ningbo City Symphony Orchestra. In the US, his conducting positions include work with orchestras and choruses at

Randolph College (VA) and UMass Dartmouth (MA). Guest conducting credits include the Marquette Symphony Orchestra (MI), the Northern Michigan State University Orchestra (MI), Brandeis New Music Ensemble (MA). He is currently the music director and conductor of the Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra, and the orchestra of the Governor’s School of North Carolina, with which he has performed world and American premieres by composers like Salvatore Sciarrino, Chen Yi, Hector Parra, Rebecca Saunders, and many others.