Local Guitarist To Perform At Music For Youth Benefit Concert

Newtown resident Yossi Kohrman-Glaser, 14, is one of the talented musicians who will be featured during the Benefit Concert for Music for Youth on November 8 at Trinity Church in Southport. The benefit concert will showcase 16 young musicians from Fairfield County.

“This is an opportunity for the community to hear outstanding local talents perform exceptional music while supporting a very worthy cause,” stated Marianne Liberatore, executive director of Music for Youth. “Many of these young musicians, who range in age from eight to 15, have been studying their instruments since nursery school!”

Funds raised by the Benefit Concert support Music for Youth’s series of free concerts for children, explained Ms Liberatore. The performers were discovered during Music for Youth Master Classes.

Tickets are $25 for students, $50 for adults, and include a supper party following the performances. Call 203-227-1611; VISA or MasterCard are accepted. Tickets also are on sale at Sally’s Place, 190 Main Street in Westport.

Yossi Kohrman-Glaser recently took first place in the Guitar Foundation of America’s (GFA) International Youth Competition held in Ithaca, N.Y.

In November he will play Suite Espanola. Op. 47: Sevilla and Asturias written by Isaac Albeiz and transcribed for guitar by Manuel Barruecom.

Yossi has been studying guitar for nine years and was a finalist in Danbury Music Centre’s annual concerto competition in 2006 and took second place in 2007. That June he was a soloist with Danbury Symphony Orchestra at its annual Pops concert, performing the Vivaldi Lute Concerto in C.

A freshman at Newtown High School, Yossi has been composing his own music since age 5. He has composed for piano, classical guitar, recorder, string quartet and symphonic orchestra.

He is a four-time national winner of a National PTA competition in musical composition, placing at the state level eight years in a row. Additionally his piano composition, Etude in E minor, was chosen by the Music Educators National Conference’s (MENC) talent search, and was performed at their national convention in 2005.

Yossi is a student of Andrew LaFreniere at Suzuki Talent Education School in Newtown, where he has been studying the piano for ten and the viola for four.

In addition to the young Newtown musician, performers at the November 8 benefit concert will also include pianist Alexander Beyer, the first-prize winner of the Carlson Horn Concerto Competition; cellist Camden Archambeau; violinist Adriana Bay; pianists Victoria Chao, Cormac Cummiskey, Marcus Russi, Julian Shively and Dalton Yu; violist Jedrik Chao; Declan Cummiskey, Olivia Owens, Michelle Curtis and Lance Parisot performing as Redding String Quartet; and violinist Amanda Fath and cellist Eliza Fath, who will perform with Alexander Beyer as Greenfield Piano Trio.

For information on Music for Youth, call Marianne Liberatore at 203-227-1611, send email to vanhoorn@optonline.net, or visit MusicForYouth.net.