Friends of Music presents West Virginia’s new and much acclaimed Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra (2RCO) in a first concert of 2011.

On March 12, at the Frank Concert Center on the campus of Shepherd University, the curtain will go up at 8 p.m. The concert is sponsored by KINEXUM.

Mark McCoy, conductor of 2RCO and chairman of the Shepherd Department of Music, said in a press release, “I have said that this season we present the ‘Tale of Two Orchestras.’ Last concert we presented some of the great standard repertoire we have all come to know and love. In this concert, we take a definitive turn toward the newer music available to the modern orchestra.”

Founded by Friends of Music in 2007, 2RCO is comprised of the finest musicians in the Baltimore-Washington area, including many Shepherd faculty members. Since that time, West Virginia’s newest professional orchestra has been serving up the best in orchestral concerts and changing the way people think about “classical” music.

2RCO is dedicated to reaching out to that next generation through the orchestra and the free ticket program for students, outreach concerts in schools, pre-concert lectures and presentations and a host of other initiatives. Each initiative sending this message to students: When you come to a 2RCO concert, you are not coming to a museum — you are coming to a reflection of the world in which you live.

On March 11 the public is cordially invited to “Lunch with Friends” at the Bavarian Inn in Shepherdstown. McCoy will present highlights of the upcoming 2RCO concert.

For more information and to learn more about the Friends of Music, please call 304-876-5765 or visit www.sufom.org.