Local Musicians Playing at Cello Festival This Weekend

Submitted by Joyce Rapaport

The 12th annual concert of the Vivaldi Cello Festival Orchestra will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 26, in the auditorium.

The purpose of the event is to give local young musicians an opportunity to perform with a professional orchestra as a soloist in a formal, concert setting. The featured soloists are accompanied by Boston musicians who come together each year as the Vivaldi Festival Orchestra. Works by Vivaldi, St. Saens, Dvorak, Telemann, Haydn and Tchaikovsky will be performed. The conductor is Paul Dulude, director of the Boston Virtuosi.

The performance is sponsored by parents and local businesses and organizations. The concert is free, but donations are encouraged and gratefully received.

The violist is a student of Joan Ellersick, who is adjunct faculty at St. Mark’s School in Southborough. The cellists are all students of Maryan McClelland Pietropaolo, who taught at the University of Lowell and Phillips Exeter Academy. She moved to Westborough in 1999 with her husband, Joe Pietropaolo, a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra viola section for 39 years.