Lancaster violinist Melody Brubaker Cliff will be featured in a 30-minute concert on First Friday, April 5, at 8 p.m. at First Reformed Church, 40 E. Orange St., Lancaster. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m. The concert's theme is "Sounds of Spring."

The selections will include Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise," "Allegro Aperto" from Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5, and an arrangement of the hymns "Jesus Paid It All" and "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded." Cliff will be accompanied on the piano by Larry Hershey.

Cliff is concertmaster for Allegro Orchestra of Lancaster. She also performs with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra and as a freelance violinist in the area. She is the middle and high school orchestra director and string teacher at Lower Dauphin School District, where she has taught for the past 16 years.

A native of Elizabethtown, Cliff was a student of Odin Rathnam, Melinda Daetsch, and Michael Jamanis. She studied music education at Lancaster Bible College and earned her master's degree in violin performance from West Chester University, where she studied with Sylvia Ahramjian. She is a member of the National Association for Music Education and the American String Teachers Association (ASTA).

Through ASTA, she was honored as the 2018 Outstanding Director of the Year and the 2010 Outstanding New String Teacher for the Pennsylvania-Delaware Chapter. Most recently, she was recognized through the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association with the 2023 Citation of Excellence Award for District 7.

Admission is free. For more information, contact the church office at 717-397-5149.