The Nashua Chamber Orchestra with music director, David Feltner, will present its season finale, “Sound the Trumpet!” on June 102, with a world premiere by David Feltner, Dreams and Awakenings”, the Haydn Trumpet Concerto, and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. Trumpet prodigy Sarah Heimberg is the featured soloist. Performances: Saturday June 1 at 7:30 p.m., Judd Gregg Hall, Nashua Community College, 505 Amherst St. Sunday , June 2 at 7:30 p.m., Milford Town Hall, 1 Union Square on the Milford Oval. Tickets can be purchased at the door, or in advance at Darrell’s Music Hall in Nashua, and the Toadstool Bookstore in Lorden Plaza , Milford, or onlin e at the website: www.nco-music.org. Prices are $20, adults; $15, seniors, college students and military; students under 18, free. Each concert is followed by a reception where audience members can mingle with the musicians. For more information, check the web site or phone NCO President, Jackie O’Dowd, at 603-582-5211.

Franz Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in Eb Major is the most beloved concerto of the trumpet repertoire. Haydn composed it for his friend, Anton Weidinger, likely to entice him to leave the Imperial Court Orchestra in Vienna and join Haydn’s musicians at the Austro-Hungarian Esterházy Court. Weidinger, a well known virtuoso of the time, had invented a brand new trumpet with an expanded range. This new version has since been surpassed by the valve version played today. Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto displayed the capabilities of Weidinger’s keyed trumpet. Although the Concerto was written in 1796, the premiere was not until 1800, allowing Weidinger more time to perfect his new trumpet design. The Concerto is in the conventional three movements. It showcases the attributes of the new instrument and the virtuosity of the performer, with rapid runs, trills, and acrobatic leaps. The Trumpet Concerto was Haydn’s last orchestral work, following his 104 symphonies, with all of his delightful inventiveness, humor and lyricism at its height. Sarah Heimberg, a senior at Merrimack High School, is a high achiever. She began playing the trumpet at age eleven, and has already distinguished herself as a virtuoso. She loves the unique form of self expression the trumpet provides, and the gradation of colors and sounds she can produce. In addition to appearing as soloist with the NCO and other New Hampshire ensembles, Sarah is a member of the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. She is a founding member of the Karner Blue Brass, a quintet of area high school students that promotes gender equality by performing works of female composers. A multi-talented individual, Sarah is a life-long Girl Scout, an active member of the National Honor Society and the Merrimack High School Math Team. She is a creative writer, with several novels in progress. She lives with her parents, brother, and her two dogs, Ruby and Mozi (short for Mozart). Sarah aspires to be an international soloist and have three cats, Wasabi, Bernstein and Copland, named for her favorite composer duo. When Sarah Heimberg played the first movement of the Haydn Trumpet Concerto at the 2014 NCO family concert, maestro David Feltner was impressed. Now that she will perform the complete Concerto, he wanted to include a newer work to showcase her remarkable talents. After searching in vain, he decided to write one himself! “I first thought about the role of the trumpet, both in the orchestra and in larger society. I remembered the story of the Walls of Jericho and how the blast of the trumpets caused the walls to come tumbling down. Then I thought of expanding the idea to include any walls that separate us, including Trump’s proposed wall in Mexico.” As he experimented with traditional bugle calls, “they morphed into something dreamier, reminiscent of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

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