Melanie Young

Manassas Symphony Orchestra

First appearing with the MSO in 2011, violin virtuoso Andrew Sords returns to Merchant Hall for his third performance, this time showcasing Richard Strauss’s vibrant and youthful Violin Concerto in D Minor. Composed when Strauss was only 17, the concerto may be less frequently performed than his later tone poems and operas, but it remains a captivating showcase of late-Romantic virtuosity and artistic promise.

The concert opens with Leopold Stokowski’s dramatic orchestral arrangement of J. S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, made famous by Disney’s Fantasia. Inspired by a walking tour through the ruins of Holyrood Chapel in Edinburgh, Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 in A Minor (“Scottish”) brings the program — and the MSO’s season — to an exuberant close.

German Masters

Hylton Performing Arts Center

For this all-American program, the MSO features its principal harpist, Melanie Young, in a performance of Ennanga by William Grant Still.

This rarely heard work for harp, strings, and piano is a vivid reflection of the ennanga, an African harp-like instrument. Played on a modern harp, the piece has a calming, restorative quality that gently soothes the soul.

Sonic America