SPRINGFIELD – Springfield’s popular Baroque bash promises to thrill with favorites from masters of that era. The viola, often relegated to the shadows of the string texture, will dazzle as soloist Nokuthula Ngwenyama joins the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and Peter Stafford Wilson, music director, on Saturday, Jan. 14, at 7:30 p.m. in the Clark State Performing Arts Center for their MasterWorks II performance.

Featured as a “Face to Watch” in the Los Angeles Times, Ngwenyama’s performances as orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician continue to garner attention. Gramophone proclaimed Ngwenyama’s playing as providing “solidly shaped music of bold, mesmerizing character,” and the Washington Post described her as playing “with dazzling technique in the virtuoso fast movements and deep expressiveness in the slow movements.”

Ngwenyama has performed throughout the United States and abroad. No stranger to television and radio appearances, her performance at the White House, commemorating the 10th anniversary of NPR’s Performance Today, also featured artists Wynton Marsalis, James Galway, and Murray Perahia. A portrait of Ngwenyama was televised on CBS Sunday Morning. She was featured on the Emmy Award-nominated PBS program Sound of Strings in the “Musical Encounter” series.

The repertoire for the Going for Baroque concert will include Bach’s Brandenberg Concerto No. 3, Jean Baptiste Lully’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme Suite and Handel’s Viola Concerto Water Music.

The Opening Notes and Performance Prelude will be combined for this concert and will feature Dr. Lowell Greer and the Natural Horns of North West Ohio at 6:30 p.m. in the Turner Studio Theatre

Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.springfieldsym.org/ or call the Clark State Performing Arts Center Box Office at 937-328-3874, open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Box Office opens at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 14.