Lynchburg Youth Symphony Orchestra Soloist To Be Featured in LU Symphony Orchestra Concert

The Lynchburg Symphony Youth Orchestra (LSYO) held its 2025 Concerto Competition in January, and the winning soloist will be featured in the Liberty University Symphony Orchestra (LUSO) concert Feb. 28.  

As a division of the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra, the LSYO provides an opportunity for young musicians of varying skill levels to gain experience playing in a full orchestra ensemble. In the recent competition, several students competed on solo pieces, with flute soloist Trenton Walker taking first place with his performance.  

“For a teenage student like Trenton to win — it’s a pretty big deal,” Zachary Bruno, director of LUSO and Liberty’s Wind Symphony said.
 

According to Bruno, winning a competition like this at a young age validates all the student’s practice, study and time spent learning their instrument.  

The upcoming LUSO concert will feature performances of five pieces of classical music, with the final piece as a collaboration between LUSO and LSYO. This collaboration will feature 19 LSYO members performing alongside LUSO members with Walker as the featured soloist.  

The concert will be the melding of two different contests as LUSO held its own Concerto Competition in November where 35 applicants were narrowed down to three winners who will each perform a solo.  

According to Bruno, this experience is an opportunity for young musicians like Walker to further showcase and develop their performing skills as well as add to their musical portfolios.  

“In preparing for applications to college or graduate school, it certainly is something that goes well on one’s resume,” Bruno said. “As a student is learning more and more pieces of music, they’re building their catalog or their library of pieces that they could again pull out someday … to perform for a future opportunity.” 

Liberty first became involved with LSYO through the efforts of Pat Edmiston, the director of programming and special events for the School of Music. Edmiston also serves as the president of the board of the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra and brought the idea for a collaboration to Bruno’s attention.  

“I said ‘absolutely,’” Bruno said. “We would love to have these talented young students coming onto our campus, rehearsing with us for a few weeks prior, getting to see our beautiful facilities and getting to enjoy the camaraderie of making music with college students.”  

Bruno said this competition not only celebrates talented musicians but also works to train and empower the next generation of musicians who can give the gift of classical music to their community.  

“With classical music, there’s an opportunity for an expression of emotion and a transcendent beauty that is difficult to capture in just about any other art form,” Bruno said. “When a symphony orchestra is performing and a member of an audience is there in person experiencing it live in that time and space, it’s almost magical, and I would suggest in many ways it’s divine. It’s an inspired gift from God that we get to experience that as musicians on stage and as audience members.”  

For more information on all the events held by Liberty’s School of Music, or to buy tickets for the upcoming LUSO Concert Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m., visit www.liberty.edu/music/events. 

Perez is a feature reporter for the Liberty Champion.