Newtown Friends of Music has an exciting event to offer for the second concert of the 22nd season: the sensational and extravagantly gifted 23-year-old violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama. Miss Ngwenyama has been invited to perform in the auditorium of Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street in Newtown, on Sunday, October 31. The concert will begin at 3 pm.

Nokuthula Ngwenyama came to national attention when she won the Young Concert Artists International auditions — the first violist chosen in 14 years — at the age of 17. It has not taken long for this daughter of an African father and a Japanese mother to be in demand with many US orchestras. A graduate of the Curtiss Institute in Philadelphia, she was the recipient of the 1996-97 Fulbright Grant to study at the Conservertoire de Music in Paris and in 1997 she received the Avery Fisher Career Grant Award. Still in the formative years of a very promising career, Miss Ngwenyama is drawing great attention to a seldom-heard solo instrument with numerous acclaimed performances.

Last season included the reengagement with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as well as concertos with Tucson, Buffalo, Modesto and San Obispo symphonies. Her international tours — including Italy, Japan, France, and Canada — have caused her flawless performances to be praised by no less than The New York Times, which said “…her readings show her to be an assured player with a solid and dazzling technique.”

Jaws dropped with astonishment when this impeccable artist gave recitals at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center and Alice Tully Hall. She has also appeared at a special concert at the White House with such eminent artists as Winton Marsalis, James Galway, Denyce Graves and Murray Perahia. Miss Ngwenyama currently resides in Boston and Paris.

Accompanying Miss Ngwenyama for her Newtown performance will be the pianist Melvin Chen, a native of Nashville who holds a double master’s degree from Juilliard in piano and violin. While attending Yale University he studied under Boris Berman, Ida Kafavian and Paul Kantor.

Mr Chen has performed with many orchestras as a piano soloist, as well as with the Yale Symphony after winning the William Waite concerto competition twice. As a violinist he has been active as the concertmaster for the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, and the Juilliard Orchestra. He has been heard in both recital and chamber music appearances at Carnegie, Alice Tully and Boston’s Jordan Hall, plus other venues in the United States, Canada and Asia.

The program for October 31 will feature Haydn’s Divertimento (transcribed by Piatigorsky); the Hindemith Sonata for Viola and Piano; Bach, Partita in G minor; Britten, Reflection for Viola and Piano (1930); and Paganini’s La Campanella.

Tickets are $14 for adults, $12 for seniors and students, and free for children between the ages of 5 and 14 when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult.

The box office will open one hour before the performance starts. Parking is free and available behind Edmond Town Hall. There will be an informal reception following the concert.

For further information and ticket information call Newtown Friends of Music at 426-6470.