Orcas Island violinist Paris Wilson is part of a 17-piece youth orchestra from Northwest Washington that will perform in the Dvorák Orchestra Festival in Prague at the end of June and in Vienna’s premier International Youth Music Festival in July.

Wilson was invited to perform a solo, the Vitali Chaconne, with the North Stars Chamber Orchestra. In addition, the orchestra will perform works by Felix Mendelssohn, Gian-Carlo Menotti, Alessandro Marcello, and Marc-Antoine Charpentier. The musicians will visit many historical sites including the Lobkowicz Palace with its large music archive of works by hundreds of composers, including Handel, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, and the Vienna City Cemetery and the graves of Beethoven, Strauss, Brahms, and Schubert.

The orchestra, under the direction of Sharyn Peterson, is one of four featured youth symphonies from around the world selected to perform at Dvorák Hall in the Rudolfinum, the performance hall in which Antonin Dvorák premiered many of his beloved masterpieces. Sharyn Peterson is the director the Peterson Conservatory of Music and Arts, the Fidalgo Youth Symphony and the Mt. Baker Youth Symphony.