PINEDALE – Known for its exciting performances and innovative repertoire, the University of Wyoming Symphony Orchestra will soon be performing in Pinedale. The concert will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 13, in the Pinedale High School Sheppard Auditorium.

The event is free and open to the public.

The performance will include all four movements of what was previously called Franz Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony” and Valentin Silvestrov’s “Prayer for Ukraine.” The concert will begin with Jean Sibelius’ familiar “Finlandia.”

Three of the University of Wyoming’s finest student musicians will be featured as soloists with the University of Wyoming Symphony Orchestra (UWSO). All were finalists in the UWSO’s annual Dorothy Jacoby Student Soloist Competition on March 7.

Brittany Kubiak, a violinist from Cleveland, Ohio, will play Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending.” Vocalist Amanda Silva will sing the sensuous “Habanera” from Georges Bizet’s opera “Carmen.” Henrique Rabelo, a graduate student from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, won the Jacoby Contest and will perform the opening movement of the brilliant “Piano Concerto No. 1” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Long-time UWSO conductor Michael Griffith will be on the podium. Now in his 34th year as conductor of the UWSO, Griffith has conducted concerts in such far-flung locales as Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, La Paz, New York City’s Times Square and Goiania, Brazil.

Closer to home, Griffith has led the Fort Collins Symphony, Cheyenne Symphony, Opera Fort Collins, Casper’s Opera Wyoming, Denver’s Mercury Ensemble, Boulder’s Colorado Music Festival and the Powder River Symphony in Gillette.

Griffith was a visiting professor at Finland’s Sibelius Academy, was twice elected a Top Ten Teacher by UW’s graduating class and has taught UW’s London Semester. A past president of the International Conductor’s Guild, Griffith has won numerous awards including an ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award.

Orchestra tours are funded by the Symphony Association for the University of Wyoming, private donors and host communities.