Concert to raise funds for young musicians
OROVILLE >> The North Valley InTune Music Foundation is hosting two events to benefit local student bands and aspiring young musicians.
The first event is the Dream Big Project Music Festival returning for the first time since 2019. One free concert will be held Friday morning for local students and a second concert, open to the community, will be held at 6:30 p.m., Friday at the State Theatre. Both concerts feature performances by the Butte Music Teachers Association of California’s Youth Orchestra, Central Middle School Intermediate Band, Las Plumas-Oroville High School Band, STREAM Charter School Advanced Band, Nelson Avenue Middle School Band and the Palermo Middle School Band.
Tickets are $12 and available online at www.OrovilleStateTheatre.com or at the door.
“Every dollar raised from this event goes back to the participating school bands,” said Louisa Louie, NVIMF director. “We had to cancel the past three years because of COVID so, we’re really excited to be bringing this music festival back to the community.”
The second NVIMF Dream Big Project benefit event is a dinner concert which will include classical, jazz and soft rock on March 11 from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Historic Oroville Inn in the grand ballroom.
All proceeds from this event will be used to establish the North Valley InTune Music Foundation scholarship for graduating local high school seniors who are going on to attend college and study music.
The featured musician for this event is Akye Agus. A native of Indonesia, Agus began her concert career playing both the violin and the piano when she was 7. After high school graduation, she came to the United States on a full scholarship to study violin and piano at Daemen College, Buffalo, NY. She later received a full scholarship from the Juilliard School of Music for graduate studies, but chose instead to audition for the Heifetz Masterclass with world renowned Russian-American violinist, Jascha Heifetz. She spent 15 years as Heifetz’s accompanist before going on to give lectures, masterclasses and concerts around the world.
The other concert performers include Suzanne Wong, a concert pianist and faculty member at several Southern California colleges; Virgil Atkinson, a Yuba-City native guitarist, singer and song writer; John Paris, an internationally acclaimed pianist, accordionist and composer who has recorded 13 albums; Jan Roberts-Haydon, a flautist who has performed with multiple symphony orchestras and is currently the principal flautist for the Yuba Sutter Symphony; and, Sasha Iwabuchi Fomin, a 12-year-old violinist and the junior division winner of the 2022 Paradise Symphony Young Artist Audition.
“We’re excited to bring these world-class musicians to Oroville,” said Hunter Wong, NVIMF president. “And, to bring a little bit of musical fun and excitement to town.”
The dinner concert will be catered by Union Patio Bar & Grill. The evening’s menu includes several appetizers such as spinach & artichoke dip, a charcuterie board and crab rangoon followed by a salad of seasonal greens with fresh raspberries, pumpkin seeds, tomatoes, cucumbers and feta cheese. The entrée is petit filet, jumbo prawns in a scampi sauce, creamy polenta and baby carrots. Individual cheesecakes with a mixed-berry topping will be served for dessert.
“It’s going to be fine dining,” said Louie.
Tickets for the dinner concert are $150 per person and $1,100 for a table of eight and are available in advance at Union Patio Bar & Grill, 2053 Montgomery St., or online at https:// www.eventbrite.com/e/ dream-big-project-dinnerconcert-and-fundraiserwith-ayke-agus-friendstickets-514368669537.
Wong and his sister, Forest Wong, both Oroville High School graduates, founded NVIMF in 2016. At the time, Wong, a pianist and celloist, and his sister, a pianist and violinist, were 16 and 14 respectively. Wong, now 22, is currently a student at the University of Southern California and, his sister, now 20, studies at Columbia University in New York. Both remain active in the operations of NVIMF with support from their mother Louisa Louie and father Brian Wong.