Kristin Yu, violin, and Laurel Yu, viola, perform Mozart’s ‘Sinfonia Concertante’ with the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra.

VALDOSTA — The secret to an exceptional performance of Mozart’s “Sinfonia Concertante” by the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra may boil down to rehearsals in a closet.

That’s where Kristin Pfeifer Yu, VSO concertmaster, and Laurel Yu, principal viola, have been rehearsing for the Valdosta Symphony performance scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 22.

“We’re excited to finally play this in a concert hall,” Laurel Yu said. “We’ve been learning the entire concerto in our closet at night, because we don’t want to wake our 18-month-old son and it’s the only time we could practice together. I guess that’s the positive of being married to the solo violinist, is we can rehearse at any hour … just as long as we don’t wake the baby up.”

Saturday, the Yus are the featured Valdosta Symphony performers of the Mozart piece. They often work together as featured performers.

“We do play together regularly but mainly in chamber music and orchestra. We have both played concertos with orchestras individually but we’ve never done the Sinfonia Concertante together, it’s definitely a bucket list item,” Kristin said.

Laurel said performing the Mozart work marks relationships coming full circle.

“When we were in school, we traveled together all over the country playing concerts and traveling with various groups, especially chamber music,” he said. “We also played in a lot of orchestras, similar to VSO, and that was always fun to travel to different places and cities. I actually played the ‘Sinfonia Concertante’ with my best friend at Florida State University; we won the concerto competition there. He was the best man at our wedding and he’s sitting principal second violin this season with the VSO. The whole experience with playing the ‘Sinfonia Concertante’ is like playing with our closest friends and our students … what more can we ask for?”

Howard Hsu, Valdosta Symphony music director, said the “Sinfonia Concertante,” a work for solo violin and viola, was composed when Mozart was 23.

The “Sinfonia” reveals the duality of Mozart’s compositions.

“With a composer like Mozart, I think he can be viewed as too easy for children but too difficult for adults. I enjoy listening to the ‘Sinfonia Concertante,’ because you hear his symphonic style, his operatic style; you can hear him developing still as a composer,” Kristin said. “Each movement is just perfectly well written, they’re different from one another, they don’t sound the same but it is clearly Mozart. It’s hard to describe in words, I guess you just have to hear it for yourself to truly gather the genius of Mozart.”

Laurel said, “We’ve been rehearsing with our friend and retired piano professor at VSU, Dr. Lyle Indergaard, and he said the violin part is all about elegance, much like the other five violin concertos, and the viola part showcases a virtuosity and power that is seldom featured in Mozart’s masterworks. Mozart didn’t write any viola concerto and this is the closest thing violists have to a violin concerto. Mozart showcases the viola in similar ways that violinists get to be showcased in his other works. It’s a different light for a violist to try and imitate a violinist and this is a great example of instrumental dialogue between violin, viola and orchestra.”

The Yus have been part of VSU Music and the VSO for several years but have been together longer.

“We met while we were both doing our doctorates,” Laurel Yu said. “We first met in medieval music history class. It was a relatively dry class, so I sat next to Kristin because she was also one of the only non-musicology students in the class.

“My first interaction with her was asking if she wanted the other half of my Twix. She said no. But we ended up being assigned to various chamber ensembles together and we played in orchestra and chamber ensembles together and eventually made a chamber ensemble together before we came to VSU.

“We’ve been married eight years. We actually both got different job offers at different schools the week before we got married and ultimately decided to come to VSU. I started playing in the VSO during Howard’s first season as music director in 2009 and I’ve been principal viola since 2015. Kristin has been a part of the orchestra since 2010 and has been on faculty since 2014.”

They see the orchestra and their duties in the VSO as a combination of education and performance.

“I like that the VSO is first a teaching orchestra for our students at VSU,” Kristin said. “The most rewarding thing about playing the ‘Sinfonia Concertante’ is not only playing with Laurel but also playing with my students on stage. I don’t think there is anything that could be remotely better than that.”

Laurel Yu added, “As personnel manager of the VSO, I get to hire the orchestra who are not students and faculty. This was possibly the easiest concert I’ve had to hire for. We have a relationship with every single person on stage, whether student, our colleagues at VSU or our friends and colleagues traveling to perform with us, the VSO is a really close-knit group of musicians.”

In addition to “Sinfonia,” the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra is scheduled to perform Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 in C Major, the “Jupiter.”

Hsu describes the symphony as “pure genius. One of the most awe-inspiring moments in music occurs in the last movement of the ‘Jupiter’ symphony when Mozart sets five themes into motion simultaneously during the fugal section.”

Valdosta Symphony Orchestra’s “Majesty” concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, Whitehead Auditorium, VSU Fine Arts Building, corner of Oak and Brookwood. A pre-concert chat is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. More information, reservations: Visit www.valdostasymphony.org or call (229) 333-2150.