MUSIC SHORTS

NISSWA - A fundraiser concert for the Brainerd High School orchestra program will be at 7 p.m. Aug. 16 at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Nisswa. Four BHS orchestra alumni - cello player Joe Trucano and Alexandra Jones, violin player Heather Mastel-Lipson and viola player Lyndie Walker - will perform as a quartet.

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Admission is free; donations are welcome.

Trucano will be a sophomore at Concordia College in Moorhead this fall, studying music ministry and organ performance. As a youth, he took lessons in piano, saxophone, cello and guitar. At BHS, he was a member of the Symphonic Band, A Cappella Choir and Chamber Orchestra. He studied cello for a semester at the University of Minnesota.

Joe Trucano is among four BHS graduates who will perform.

Jones will be a sophomore at New York University in the fall, studying cello performance. She started with the Brainerd orchestra program in elementary school and was in the high school's Chamber Orchestra from grades 6-12. She was a member of the All-State Orchestra and Minnesota Youth Symphony. She records film scores at NYU and works in the musical theater department.

Mastel-Lipson is a violin performance major at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. She began studying violin at age 7 in Minneapolis, then began studying under Grant Wilcox in fifth grade in Brainerd. She served as the BHS Chamber Orchestra's concertmaster for two years and was selected to the All-State Orchestra and was with the Central Lakes Conference Honors Orchestra for seven years. She played in the Minnesota Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Walker is a sophomore at the University of Minnesota, where she is majoring in viola performance and music therapy. She began studying violin at age 5 and began studying under Wilcox in fifth grade. At BHS, she played in a viola quartet, was a member of the All-State Orchestra for three years, a member of the Central Lakes Conference Honors Orchestra for seven years and a member of the Honor Orchestra of America in 2005.

Trucano to play organ

Brainerd High School graduate Joe Trucano will perform at noon Wednesday at Trinity Lutheran Church in Brainerd as part of the Summer Organ Series.

Admission is free.

Huhta to perform Sunday

STAPLES - Johnny Jay Huhta will perform in the Staples Music in the Park series at 7 p.m. Sunday at Northern Pacific Park in Staples.

Admission is free.

Huhta, a Duluth native who lives near Pillager, was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 2006 for his early recordings with Mercury Records. He recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Country Legends Association of Fort Worth, Texas.

After a 20-year absence from recording, he released "Back in the Game" (2006), a country album that spent four months on the Americana Music Charts. He followed that with "A Road Well Traveled" (2007), which includes recordings from the 1950s to the present.

For more information, visit www.staplesmotleyarts.org.

Kentucky Sound Arsenal to headline show

HACKENSACK - Various bands will perform original music at an all-ages metal, punk and rock concert at 7 p.m. Aug. 21 at the Hackensack Community Building at 110 Third St. N. in Hackensack.

Admission is $5.

The lineup will include Birthday Pony (7 p.m.); Static Fuzz (7:45 p.m.); A Dream Within a Dream (8:30 p.m.); Ampsontwelve (9:15 p.m.); and Fargo, N.D., band Kentucky Sound Arsenal (10 p.m.).

For more information, visit www.myspace.com/evilstenchproductions.