Students of the Aber Suzuki Center at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point will perform the 40th annual Spring Festival Concert on Sunday, April 27.

The concert will be held at 2 p.m. at Ben Franklin Junior High School and will showcase 250 string, voice and piano students. The show is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a reception in the school cafeteria to honor the year's accomplishments and graduating seniors.

Suzuki faculty members will lead violin, viola, cello, piano and voice students as they perform music by Bach, Telemann, Scarlatti, Schumann, Brahms and John Phillip Sousa. High school string students in the Central State Chamber Orchestra will open the program with a preview of music from their May 10 concert, and the concert will conclude with all students performing Dr. Shinich Suzuki's famous "Variations on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

The first Suzuki Festival Concert was held in 1968 featuring a small number of violin students from the UWSP Laboratory School Suzuki Program. The students performed under the leadership of founding director Margery Aber, one of the 35 "Famous Individuals of Stevens Point" as listed in the Point 150 magazine.

The Aber Suzuki Center now includes eight full time faculty members and students from more than 30 communities in Central Wisconsin.

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