The Concert at the Studio tonight will be a ‘Town and Gown’ event featuring the Troy-Pike Youth Orchestra and the Troy University Brass Ensembles.

The concert is at 7 p.m. at The Studio on East Walnut Street in downtown Troy across from the Johnson Center for the Arts and it’s free and open to the public.

The concert is the last event of the Concerts in the Studio series for the 2009-10 season and promises to be a great one with the exuberance of youth and the experience of more seasoned musicians.

The program is titled “The Best of Both Worlds” and brings together the programs of the Troy-Pike Cultural Arts Center and the Troy University School of Music.

The program will begin with selections by the Troy University Trumpet Ensemble I playing standard works for brass including “Festival Fanfare” and “Ye Banks and Braes o’ Bonnie Doon,” which is an English folk song, said Dr. Jim Zingara, Trumpet Ensembles director.

The program will then feature the Troy-Pike Youth Orchestra, which will play tunes both familiar to the audience and new.

Ginger Zingara, director of the Troy-Pike Youth Orchestra, said the young musicians are excited to have an opportunity to present their second concert of the year.

“We have 14 students, playing the violin and the cello,” Zingara said. “The beginning students will play ‘Rockin’ Strings,’ ‘Frere Jacques’ and “Ode to Joy.’ The intermediate strings will be doing ‘Gaelic Castle,’ ‘Pachelbel’s Canon,’ and ‘Classic Bits and Pieces,’ which is a famous orchestral tune.”

When the trumpets return to the stage, Trumpet Ensemble II will be featured in what Jim Zingara said is a highly difficult piece but one that the trumpeters are doing an outstanding job playing.

“‘Fantasia for Seven Trumpets’ by Eric Ewazen is extremely difficult and it’s about a eight- or nine-minute piece,” Zingara said. “It’s a piece that I think the audience will really appreciate.”

The Troy University Brass Quintet will close with Renaissance works by German trumpeter and composer Johann Christoph Pezel and Brian Balmage’s extremely popular, “Exaltation.”

“We always like to close on a high note,” Zingara said.

Everyone is invited to attend the Concert at the Studio and be entertained by some of the areas most talented trumpeters and budding young string musicians.

The experienced players enjoy performing just as much as the young musicians.

For young people who are interested in playing strings, the concert is a great introduction to the youth orchestra program in Troy.

Ginger Zingara said the Troy-Pike Youth Orchestra was organized in an effort to give students, who are interested in playing string instruments, a place to learn and a place to perform.

“The local public schools don’t have a strings program so, to learn to play, you have to drive an hour to take lessons or to be a part of a group,” she said.

“The youth orchestra provides an opportunity to stay here at home and learn to play a string instrument.”

Participation in the Troy-Pike Youth Orchestra is growing as more young people are being introduced to strings.

“A beginners’ class will offered in August and we invite those who are interested to join us,” Zingara said.