Young area musicians have the opportunity to join the Central Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra Program as it takes applications for the second semester of the 2016-17 season.

Formed through the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) Music Department, Aber Suzuki Center and Continuing Education, as well as local music educators, the program has openings in both its Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonia groups. Student musicians are highly encouraged to register early for reduced fees.

Both groups rehearse and perform at the Noel Fine Arts Center on the UWSP campus. Rehearsals will begin Sunday, Jan. 8, and a concert concludes the semester Sunday, April 2. All members have the opportunity to receive sectional coaching from UWSP music education majors, as well as master classes from university and Aber Suzuki music faculty over the course of the semester.

“Young musicians would have to travel to Madison or the Fox Valley to be involved in this level of study and performance,” said program founder and music director Kurt Van Tiem. “Now they only have to travel to the top-notch facilities at the Noel Fine Arts Center.”

Van Tiem directs the Symphony Orchestra, which performs standard orchestral literature at the advanced high school level. The program is looking to fill openings in violin, double bass, trombone, horn, oboe and trumpet. The April concert will include works by Ira and George Gershwin, Ney Rosauro and Edward Elgar. Van Tiem chairs the Music Department at P.J. Jacobs Junior High School in Stevens Point and has conducted the Wausau Symphony and ensembles at the University of Massachusetts.

The Philharmonia is directed by Stephan Wucherer and performs various levels of full orchestra literature from standard middle school to high school level. The group is seeking instrumentalists in viola, double bass, oboe, trumpet, horn and percussion and will perform works by Edvard Greig, Peytor Tchaikovsky and Samuel Barber at the April concert. Wucherer is an orchestra director in the Howard-Suamico school district and an active musician, composer, conductor and teacher in the Fox Valley and Central Wisconsin.

For more information or registration, go to www.uwsp.edu/conted/artculture/pages/cwyso or call 715-346-3838.