The Hope College Symphonette will present a preview concert on Friday, March 11, at 7:30 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel before the group embarks on its annual spring tour the following week.

The public is invited. Admission is free.

The Symphonette tours annually during spring break. During the spring tour the Symphonette will be playing in Flint; Solon, Ohio; Rochester, N.Y.; Albany, N.Y.; and Concord, Mass. The March 11 concert will feature a sampling of the tour program, which will include works by Bizet, Faure, Liadow, Telemann, Bach, Barber and Smetana.

The Symphonette will also highlight several graduating seniors as soloists accompanied by the Symphonette in a movement of a concerto. The seniors highlighted will include Emily Bauss of Kalamazoo, violin; Lydia Benish of Cleveland, Ohio, horn; Jonathan Brooks of Hudsonville, horn;  Amanda Dykman of La Grange, Ill., violin; and Elena Poletto of Aurora, Ill., viola.

The Symphonette is selected each year from the larger 80-member college symphony orchestra. Through the Symphonette, the music department of Hope College is able to offer concerts to church and school communities some distance from its campus, and at the same time afford its more proficient players an unusual opportunity for group participation and concentrated study of musical styles.

The Symphonette has made numerous radio and television appearances and has presented children's and youth concerts in addition to its series of formal concerts. The Symphonette has performed at the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) and the American String Teachers National Conference, and appears regularly in cities in Michigan. The Symphonette has appeared on the nationally televised "Hour of Power" from Garden GroveChurch in California. The annual tour has taken the Symphonette to most of the U.S. as well as two Provinces in Canada, on several occasions to Europe, and to Australia and New Zealand.

Richard Piippo, who is an associate professor of cello and chamber music at the college, conducts the Hope College Symphonette. Piippo has taught at Hope since 1999.

Dimnent Memorial Chapel is located at 277 College Ave., on College Avenue at 12th Street