Mars Area High School freshman Gracyn Thatcher joined with the Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestra (TRYPO) in its performance of a virtual concert, available online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVu52ch0prM.

The virtual concert features composer Michael Markowski’s “City Trees,” one of the selections from the TRYPO’s 2019-2020 season, themed The Elements, that the orchestra was to perform on stage at New York City’s Carnegie Hall on March 31. However, amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the much-anticipated concert was canceled.

Despite their disappointment and separation, the youth orchestra members worked at home to video their individual parts, which were submitted to Markowski who put the final piece together. In honor of the title of the piece, orchestra members each submitted a picture of a tree near their home to be included in the video.  

Thatcher has been playing the cello with the Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestras organization for three seasons, performing as a member of the Symphonette strings orchestra in her first two seasons and successfully auditioning for the Young Peoples Orchestra this season. She also has played in a string quartet and attended TRYPO’s summer program in Chautauqua, N.Y.

The Young Peoples Orchestra is a full symphonic orchestra made up of mostly high school-age students from the Pittsburgh Region, West Virginia and Ohio. The group rehearses on Saturday afternoons at Duquesne University’s Mary Pappert School of Music.  

For more information, visit https://trypo.org/.