SALISBURY — The Salisbury Symphony will be presenting the next of its Serenade Series concerts on Dec. 13 at 6 p.m. at Omwake-Dearborn Chapel on the Catawba College campus.

Entitled “Monuments of Despair, Hope and Faith,” the program will feature selected masterworks as well as a contribution from Margaret Petty, a current member of Salisbury Symphony orchestra.

Selections in this concert, as noted in a release, “will explore the widest range of human emotions, taking full advantage of the rich auditory environment provided by the chapel. These inspiring pieces stand as a testament to the power of music to articulate deep feelings and transformative experiences.”

Pieces on the program will include “Faure’s Piano Trio,” “Petty’s Three Psalter Psalms for Violin and Cello” and “Mendelsohn’s Piano Trio No. 2 in C Minor.”

Salisbury Symphony Concertmaster Dan Skidmore, cellist Margaret Cording Petty and pianist Dr. Wei Jiao will be performing during the concert.

Skidmore performs regularly in North Carolina as concertmaster of the Salisbury Symphony, the Western Piedmont Symphony and the North Carolina Chamber Orchestra, and as associate concertmaster of the Winston-Salem Symphony. He has also performed concertos as soloist with the Winston-Salem Symphony, the Salisbury Symphony, the North Carolina Chamber Orchestra and the Sunriver Music Festival.

Skidmore has served on multiple violin faculties including at Wake Forest University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Appalachian State University, Elon University, Radford University, where he also directed the school’s chamber orchestra, Catawba College and the Oak View Baptist School of Music. 

Petty, a member of the Salisbury Symphony, is the principal cellist of the Danville Symphony and the High Point University and Community Orchestra, where she is adjunct cello instructor in cello and chamber music. She has written musical compositions for solo cello, chamber orchestra and French choral anthems.

Petty’s degrees include a bachelor of music education at Wheaton College in Illinois, an M.M. in cello performance and composition at Boston University and a Ph.D. in musicology at the University de Paris IV-Sorbonne. She and her husband reside in Greensboro.

Jiao, who was born in Shenyang, Liaoning, People’s Republic of China, began her piano training at the age of five. She continued her professional piano and musical training at the music conservatory in her hometown. Jiao holds a bachelor’s of music degree in music education from Shenyang Conservatory of Music in China and a bachelor’s of music in piano performance degree from Columbus State University. She received the master of music degree in piano performance from Syracuse University and earned a doctor of musical arts degree in piano performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Cost is $15 for adults; $13 for seniors, and $5 for 21 and younger.

Tickets can be purchased online at the symphony website, or at the door. SSO Flex-passes will also be honored at this event as they are for all of the Serenade performances

Visit the symphony website at salisburysymphony.org for additional information about upcoming concerts, tickets prices and more. The next Serenade Series concert is planned for Jan. 18 at Keppel Auditorium on the Catawba College campus. The performance is entitled “Echoes of Romance: A Celebration of Forgotten Voices.”