Murrysville musician will perform with Westminster College Orchestra

Apr. 18—It's one thing to sit down and practice Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 at home. It's quite another to sit down and play it with an orchestra backing you.

Westminster College alum and Murrysville resident Amy Simpson will have the chance April 28, as a featured performer at the music department's Spring Orchestra Concert and Gala.

"They often feature soloists, but it's not always alumni," said Simpson, who graduated from Westminster in 1986. "I performed this piece as part of earning my doctorate degree."

Simpson, who spoke with the Tribune-Review on Tuesday as she headed to her first rehearsal with the orchestra, was hoping to perform on the same piano she'd used as an undergraduate students, but that instrument wasn't available.

"It will certainly be fun to perform later in life on the same stage I used when I was in school," she said. "That's going to bring back a lot of memories."

Simpson said she's excited for the performance.

"The collaborative nature of playing with the orchestra is far more colorful, more interesting and more complicated," she said. "It's a little more inspiring when you have so many more people dedicated to the performance. Students are in a small orchestra at Westminster, so this has been a real journey for them to undertake."

The Westminster Music Department Spring Orchestra Concert and Gala will be at 7:30 p.m. April 28 at the Orr Auditorium on the Westminster campus, 319 South Market Street in New Wilmington.

The performance will also be livestreamed on the Westminster College School of Music's YouTube page.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick by email at pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .