The Topanga Symphony will present the free summer concert of their 41st season on June 25 at 7:30 p.m. at the Topanga Community Center. A favorite soloist with the Topanga Symphony, Pamela Goldsmith will perform a concerto by Antonio Vivaldi for the unique Viola D’amore, an eighteenth-century-style bowed instrument. The concert will also include the Czech Suite, Op. 39 by Antonin Dvořák, and the Symphony #4 in A major, Op. 90 by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Pamela Goldsmith is world renowned as a performer and lecturer in the International Viola Society Congress (Wellington, New Zealand), the International Viola d’Amore Congress (Stuttgart and England), the International Master Courses (Kapaonik, Yugoslavia), the International Music Academy (Czech Republic) and at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She was raised in Los Angeles and attended UCLA, Mannes College of Music, and Stanford University, where she received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree, She is an emeritus winner of the Most Valuable Player award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. She was both Vice President and Secretary of the American Viola Society and her articles on the application of scholarly research to performance style have appeared in many journals. Goldsmith appeared with the Topanga Symphony on March 13, 2011, and performed in the Topanga Symphony’s 100th concert on August 29, 2015. Violas d’amore typically have seven playing strings, tuned in the key of the composition. Perhaps the most distinguishable characteristic of the instrument is the presence of sympathetic strings These are located behind the bowed strings and not played but vibrate “in sympathy.� The sympathetic strings contribute to produce a tone that is clear and often described as “silvery,� as well as creating a more resonant sound. Bringing this unusual instrument to life on the stage of the Topanga Community Center, Goldsmith will inspire the centuries old Antonio Vivaldi composition into our modern times. The Czech Suite, Op. 39 by Antonin Dvořák was composed in 1879. He was an avid train spotter, collecting the engine numbers of the express trains from Prague to Vienna and Dresden and also spent considerable time with closely watched trains in New York during his time spent in the U.S. He was said to find much inspiration from them in his compositions including the Czech Suite. Felix Mendelssohn wrote of the Symphony #4 in A major, Op. 90, “It will be the jolliest piece I have ever done.� Lively and memorable, the final piece of the concert will be an uplifting experience to a joyful Sunday evening in Topanga’s beautiful Santa Monica Mountain community. Bring a friend and all the family to enjoy it together. For more information and to become a “Friend of the Topanga Symphony,� visit topangasymphony.com.