The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra takes off on Wagner’s epic Ride of the Valkyries, at The Vets on Saturday, February 20, at 8 p.m. Music director Larry Rachleff returns to the podium for two Wagner favorites: Götterdämmerung: Siegfried’s Rhine Journey and Die Walküre: Ride of the Valkyries. The program includes Shostakovich’s Symphony No.1, and violinist Angelo Xiang Yu in his Philharmonic debut with Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.4. Barbara Dreyer is the guest artist sponsor. Tickets (starting at $15) are available at tickets.riphil.org, and the RIPO box office at 248-7000. An open rehearsal takes place Friday, Feb. 19 at 5:30 p.m.

The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School is the largest fully integrated orchestra and music school in the United States. It enriches and transforms Rhode Island and Southern New England through great music performance and education.

2015-2016 is the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra’s 71st Season and Music Director Larry Rachleff’s 20th anniversary with the Orchestra. The eight-concert Saturday TACO Classical Series features world-renowned guest artists including pianists Lilya Zilberstein, Lukas Vondracek and Alexander Toradze, violinists Benjamin Beilman, Angelo Xiang Yu and Tracy Silverman, and cellist Julie Albers. The four-concert Friday Amica Rush Hour Series offers an earlier start time and shorter program with full performances of select repertoire from the Saturday Classical concerts and musical discussion provided by Larry Rachleff and Host Cathy Fuller of WCRB Classical Radio. Four Friday Open Rehearsals offer audience members insight into the collaboration between the conductor, guest artists and Orchestra musicians in an informal environment that is perfect for families. Special Concerts include the perennial holiday favorite Handel’s Messiah with The Providence Singers on Saturday, December 12 and a special Gala Evening with Sir James Galway on Wednesday, March 23. Resident Conductor Francisco Noya conducts Link Up! Education Concerts that serve over 13,000 elementary school children annually, as well as Summer Pops Concerts in parks across the state. With adult tickets starting at $15 for most concerts, and even better deals for children and students, the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra offers affordable cultural entertainment for all.  

Now in its 29th year, the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School serves approximately 1,500 children, youth and adults every week with lessons, classes and ensembles, and an additional 25,000 students annually through community partnerships, residencies, education concerts and in-school performances. Five youth orchestras, two wind ensembles, eleven jazz ensembles and many chamber music ensembles, in addition to weekly private lessons for many instruments, provide a musical education customized for each student.  Graduates of the Philharmonic’s Music School and Youth Ensembles have gone on to succeed in many endeavors.  Alumni include principal players in the nation’s finest orchestras, skilled music educators, esteemed composers and conductors, CEOs, doctors, lawyers, mathematicians, academicians and a former Miss Universe. As one of the largest community music schools in the nation, the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School offers an extensive faculty and one of the finest music education facilities in the Northeast – the Carter Center for Music Education and Performance in East Providence – in addition to a branch in East Greenwich and partner locations throughout the state.  A Westerly branch is slated to open in 2016.

Winner of the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition in 2010, violinist Angelo Xiang Yu is regarded as one of today’s most talented and creative young violinists. His astonishing technique and exceptional musical talent have won him consistent critical acclaim and enthusiastic audience response worldwide for his solo recitals, orchestral engagements and chamber music performances.

Angelo Xiang Yu’s recent orchestral engagements include appearances with the Pittsburgh and Houston symphonies, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, Munich Chamber Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. During the 15/16 season, he makes his debuts with the Toronto, Vancouver, North Carolina, Alabama, Charlotte, Rhode Island, Puerto Rico, Grand Rapids, Toledo, Modesto and Lake Forest symphonies, and will participate as a chamber musician at the Chamber Music Northwest festival in Portland, Oregon.

An active recitalist and chamber musician, Mr. Yu has appeared in recital in Berlin, Paris, Beijing, Singapore, Shanghai, Auckland, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Boston. He has participated as a chamber musician in several of the world’s leading summer music festivals including the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, Bergen Festival in Norway and Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, and attended the Kronberg Academy in Germany and the Perlman Music Program in New York. During the 12/13 season, Mr. Yu was invited to tour with Miriam Fried and chamber musicians from the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute and performed concerts in New York, Chicago, Florida and throughout New England. He was also recently featured as the Artist in Residence on American Public Media’s nationally broadcasted radio program Performance Today.

Born in Inner Mongolia, Angelo Xiang Yu moved to Shanghai at the age of 11 and received his early training from violinist Qing Zheng at the Shanghai Conservatory. He is currently studying at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he is the recipient of the Irene M. Stare Presidential Scholarship in Violin and is a student of Donald Weilerstein and Kim Kashkashian. After earning his bachelor’s degree in 2012, Mr. Yu was one of two instrumentalists invited to be a candidate for NEC’s prestigious Artist Diploma, which he was awarded in May 2014. He began working towards a master’s degree at NEC in the fall of 2014.