This Saturday, Jan. 21, at 8 p.m. at The VETS, Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra ushers in the New Year with Tania Miller conducting Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Chopin's Piano Concerto No.1, featuring pianist Sara Davis Buechner, and Dvořák's Eighth Symphony. Students from the RI Philharmonic Youth Orchestra will join their RIPO mentors on the Dvořák in this season’s side-by-side concert.

A multiple international piano competition winner, Sara Davis Buechner has performed with the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and Philadelphia Orchestra. She has toured throughout the Western Hemisphere and enjoys a devoted following in Asia where she has been a featured soloist with the Sydney Symphony, New Zealand Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, and Shanghai Philharmonic, among others. Ms. Beuchner has also presented masterclasses at major venues worldwide, and she has adjudicated important international piano competitions.

As a proud transgender woman, Ms. Buechner also appears as a speaker and performer at important LGBTQ events, and she has contributed interviews and articles about her own experience to numerous media outlets worldwide.

The RI Philharmonic Youth Orchestras were founded in 1956. The ensembles are open to children from elementary to high school with five experience levels, ranging from Beginning String Ensemble for young orchestral musicians to the advanced Symphony Orchestra, which has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Led by director Alexey Shabalin, himself a RI Philharmonic Orchestra violinist, the Youth Symphony Orchestra performs annually side-by-side with the RI Philharmonic Orchestra. Auditions to join any of the RI Philharmonic youth ensembles occur throughout the school year. Information is available at riphil.org or by calling 401-248-7001.