The Kenai Peninsula Orchestra, in conjunction with Carnegie Hall, will present two concerts that include area students this weekend.

The first concert will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Kenai Central High School Auditorium. The second will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Homer Mariner Theatre. 

The concerts are a result of Link Up, a 28-year program of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, which pairs orchestras with elementary-aged students across the country “to explore orchestral repertoire through hands-on curriculum. Students participating in Link Up perform in a culminating concert where they sing and play recorders with the orchestra,” according to a press release from KPO. 

Nationally, the program serves approximately 185,000 students and teachers.

On the southern Kenai Peninsula, Tammy Vollom-Matturro, KPO’s artistic director and conductor, is the instructor for the Link Up program residency at McNeil Canyon Elementary School. In the central peninsula, Sue Biggs, KPO conertmaster and music teacher at Redoubt Elementary School in Soldotna, and Jeanne Duhan, horn player and music teacher at K-Beach Elementary School, are preparing their students in singing and playing. 

Aditionally, nine members of the Homer Youth String Orchestra Club are learning to play music with the orchestra.