Jennifer Roloff, lower left, will perform Saturday as a soloist with the Danville Symphony Orchestra. She is pictured with Uni High's three other 2008 all-state musicians (clockwise from top left): junior Daniel Borup (bass I), senior Ethan Berl (tenor I), and senior Lucy Zhang (violin I). Gargoyle photo by Anna Cangellaris. (Click to enlarge)

DANVILLE — Senior Jennifer Roloff will perform as a guest soloist Saturday at the Danville Symphony Orchestra’s third concert of the 2007-08 season.

Roloff is the winner of this year’s Gail & Harry Adams Young Artists Competition, which was held Jan. 27 at the St. James United Methodist Church in Danville.

She will perform the first movement of Vaughan Williams’ Oboe Concerto, the same piece she played in the contest.

“I'm really excited, because I have never been able to solo with an orchestra before,” says Roloff. “It's a really wonderful opportunity.”

This past weekend, Roloff also won the Young Baroque Artists Competition, sponsored by the Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana. That competition was held Saturday at Smith Memorial Hall on the University of Illinois campus.

She performed two movements of an oboe concerto in D minor by Marcello, which were Andante e spiccato and Adagio. There were 16 participants. The finalists will perform at a May 18 concert at the St. John Lutheran Church.

Roloff won a $500 cash prize for each of her first-place finishes.

This Saturday’s DSO concert, titled “Magical Melodies,” will feature a second guest soloist, pianist Gleb Ivanov. The 25-year-old Russian won the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions.

He will perform Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.”

The DSO, directed by Jeremy Swerling, will perform “Festival Overture” by Shostakovich and “Peer Gynt Suite No. 1” by Grieg.

The concert is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Main Performance Auditorium, Danville High School, 202 E. Fairchild. For directions, click here.

Tickets are available at the DSO office in Danville or by phone (217-443-5300). Ticket prices are:

• Students: $10
• Adults: $23 in Section A, $21 in Section B
• Seniors: $21 in Section A, $19 in Section B

As winner of the Young Artists Competition, Roloff was invited to perform with the DSO. The contest, which the DSO has held annually since 1971, accepts only 15 musicians as competitors. Any instrumental or vocal student in grades six through 12 and who lives in one of seven surrounding counties is eligible to apply.

Competitors must perform one movement of a standard instrumental solo concerto or any classical song or aria for which orchestral accompaniment is available in the United States. Each musician has 10 minutes to perform his or her piece.

This year’s contest was dominated by entrants from Champaign-Urbana, including Roloff’s fellow senior Ethan Berl, a pianist who performed the first movement of Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor. Junior Daniel Borup also participated. No one from Vermilion County, Danville’s home county, was among the 15 competitors.

Roloff (oboe), Berl (tenor I), and Borup (bass I), along with senior Lucy Zhang (violin I), were named all-state musicians earlier this year by the Illinois Music Educators Association.