Photo submitted to Times Observer Aaron and Boaz

Bryan Eckenrode, musical director and conductor of the Warren Philharmonic, will lead the orchestra in a concert entitled “‘Tis the Season” at 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 20.  Tickets are $10 for the concert and $5 for students 18 and under and for seniors 65 and older. Children 11 and under are free. The concert will be held at the First Lutheran Church on the corner of East Street and Third Street in Warren.

Selections for the concert include “Sleepers Awake” from Cantata No. 140 by J.S. Bach, arranged by Robert Bennett Brown; “Model Railway” by Charles Williams; “White Christmas” by Irving Berlin, scored for orchestra by Robert Russell Bennett; “O Holy Night” by Adolphe Charles Adam, scored by Calvin Custer; “Allegheny Holiday” by Benjamin Husted; “Paul Bunyan Suite” by William Bergsma; “A Mad Russian’s Christmas” with music by Paul O’Neill, Robert Kinkel, and Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky and arranged by Bob Phillips; and the “Double Concerto in D Minor” for two violins by J.S. Bach.

The Bach “Double” will be played by 10-year-old identical twins Aaron and Boaz Mecham. They are the sons of Ronit and Tom Mecham. The boys are homeschooled and age-wise should be in 5th grade, but are working on 7th grade material. They live in Jamestown, N.Y. where they started playing the violin at age 5 studying the Suzuki method in the Jamestown Public Schools under the teaching of Peter Lindblom. Then they studied with Nina Karbacka and at age 7 were invited to play with Prelude, the younger orchestra of the Chautauqua Regional Youth Symphony with Bryan Eckenrode conducting. About a year ago they began lessons in music theory with Catharine Regis-Green as well as private violin lessons with Bryan Eckenrode. The boys also dance with the Chautauqua Regional Youth Ballet and participate in The Nutcracker and spring productions. They love music and the arts, seeing performances, performing, and composing their own music, and they love science and math as well.

This concert is made possible through the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts Program of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency.

It is funded by the citizens of Pennsylvania through an annual legislative appropriation, and administrated locally by the Arts Council of Erie, Inc.

The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. The orchestra, a nonprofit 501c(3) organization, is additionally funded through private and corporate sponsorships, including the Barbara Baldwin DeFrees Foundation, Community Foundation of Warren County, Conarro Family Foundation, Betts Foundation, United Refining Company, and Blair LLC.

Photo submitted to Times Observer
Bryan Eckenrode