Free Mother’s Day Concert: Featuring The Volcano Chamber Players

Mother’s Day Chamber Music Concert at Niaulani 

Volcano Art Center is pleased to present the Volcano Chamber Players in a free classical music concert to celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 14, 2023, from 4 to 6pm at Volcano Art Center’s Dietrich Varez Hall in Volcano Village. Treat your mother or yourself to an afternoon of fine chamber music and pupus this year. Beverages, pupus, and flowers will be available for purchase. The Volcano Chamber Players are Susan McGovern on viola,  Alden Young and Cathy Young on violin, and Meg Saunders on cello.

The concert is a special tribute to mothers and will entertain the entire family, seating is limited.  This free event is sponsored by the Volcano Art Center, State and County of Hawaii, Kamuela Philharmonic and Hawaii State Foundation on the Culture and the Arts.

About the Volcano Chamber Players ( from left to right)

Alden Young was born and raised in Kea‘au and began playing piano at age 3, the same time he picked up the violin. He graduated from Hilo High School in 2015. He attended the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where he was Assistant Principal Second for the Peer Gynt Suite and played in the Special Conductors Orchestra. He graduated with a Music degree in Violin Performance.  He has soloed and performed with the Kamuela Philharmonic Orchestra. He is concertmaster of the Orchid Isle Orchestra where he has performed the Accolay Violin Concerto.

Cathy Young is a violinist, violist, pianist, cellist, conductor, and music arranger.  She studied piano privately from age six, and viola at age eight in the Alexandria City Public Schools in Virginia. While serving in the Peace Corps in Belize, she was introduced to the Suzuki method of teaching music. She currently teaches strings and piano at her Young Music Studio in Kea‘au. She plays violin and viola with the Kamuela Philharmonic Orchestra. She is founder and conductor of the Orchid Isle Orchestra, which will present their Spring Concert on May 21 at East Hawaii Cultural Center in Hilo.

Susan McGovern was born and raised in Honolulu and began violin studies when she was 10 years old. She graduated with a degree in Music Education from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is a member of the Kamuela Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchid Isle Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra of Kona. She and husband Rob moved to Volcano in 1985, where she worked as a National Park Ranger in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. She served as Education Director for the Volcano Art Center and continues to lead Road Scholar groups through five Hawaiian Islands.

Meg Saunders began playing cello at age 10. She studied for several years in Pasadena California and as life took its twists and turns, 40 years passed without a cello in her life, until Meg’s husband, desperate for a unique and inspired Christmas present, gave her a cello and a new hobby was born and a new passion rekindled. Muscle memory had survived!!  Besides being a busy realtor in Hilo, Meg enjoys playing with the Orchid Isle Orchestra and the Kamuela Philharmonic Orchestra.