Schaumburg Youth Orchestra presents singalong

Audiences can get into the act at the Schaumburg Youth Symphony Orchestra’s “Sing Your Heart Out” at 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17, at the Prairie Center for the Arts, 201 Schaumburg Court, Schaumburg.

Guest vocalists will join the orchestra in leading the audience as song lyrics are projected onto a screen. Music includes medleys from “West Side Story,” “The Sound of Music,” “The Wizard of Oz,” and “Mary Poppins,” selections by George M. Cohan, Queen and the Beatles, and other popular titles.

Orchestra Director Joseph Malmquist says the concert provides student musicians with a unique performance opportunity.

“Our season repertoire primarily features classical literature by Tchaikovsky, Bizet and others in a more traditional concert setting, where the orchestra plays and then the audience expresses its appreciation,” says Malmquist. “Here, while the material is at times no less challenging to play, you’re now adding an audience as an active participant in the music making. It becomes a more organic live experience.”

The advanced 87-member student symphony is one of four ensembles that make up the Schaumburg Youth Orchestra program. Its musicians come from 22 communities from throughout the North and Northwest suburbs, including Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Elk Grove Village, Mt. Prospect, Barrington, Palatine, and Arlington Heights.

The 24-year-old orchestra presents concerts locally at the Prairie Center and has toured overseas to perform in Germany, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Japan.

Tickets for “Sing Your Heart Out” are $20 ($12 for students and seniors) and can be ordered online at prairiecenter.org or by calling (847) 8953600.

The Schaumburg Youth Orchestra is a program of the Village of Schaumburg and is sponsored by the Motorola Solutions Foundation and the Prairie Center Arts Foundation.