Riverhead freshman selected as featured soloist for SBU concert

In the summer of 2011, Marissa Macchio, the Riverhead High School orchestra director, introduced Yasmine Kocan to the cello during a music program.

“I could tell from the start that she was gifted and had an exceptional ear for music,” Ms. Macchio said in a news release. 

Now a freshman at Riverhead, Yasmine has blossomed into a standout cello player. She was recently chosen as the featured high school student performer in Stony Brook University Orchestra’s annual family concert, called “Musical Excursions and Travels.”

The university holds a competition each year among the students enrolled in its pre-college program on Saturdays. The winner is awarded as the featured soloist for the family concert. Yasmine was the winner of the 2014 Pre-College Concerto Competition.

“I am extremely honored to have won the Pre-College Concerto Competition,” Yasmine said in the release. “I am very excited to perform the Elgar Cello Concerto in E Minor. It is a beautiful piece of music. It has a lot of emotion. I hope to do my best to express all of its beauty when I play.”

The concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on March 3 at the Staller Center for the Arts. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased by calling 631-632-ARTS or at the Staller Center Box Office.