A fundraising show brought to China's quake-hit Sichuan Province by an Italian orchestra concluded on Wednesday with an encore conducted by an 11-year-old girl.

Chief conductor Francesco La Vecchia, who led his Orchestra Sinfonica Di Roma to play in Dujiangyan City, made an unexpected invitation to local sixth grader Li Peihang, when Li and her schoolmates presented flowers onstage to the performers. La Vecchia passed his baton to the shy girl and invited her onto the podium.

The rest of the 1,000-strong audience, many of whom survived the 8.0-magnitude May 12 earthquake, gave this invitation their warm support.

Li soon found her pace, and led the Italian performers to complete the show with "The Barber of Seville" overture.

Before the beginning of the outdoor concert, the orchestra led audience members in observing a one-minute silence to pay homage to quake victims. Then at 2:28 PM, the exact time of the May 12 quake, soprano Anita Selvaggio kicked off the show with a rendition of Franz Schubert's soothing "Ave Maria."

The orchestra also brought to the Chinese audience Beethoven's "Symphony No. 3" and Rossini's "Guillaume Tell."

Dujiangyan was the second stop on the orchestra's three-city China tour. It performed in Beijing last week and will move to Shanghai on Friday.

The orchestra announced earlier that all proceeds from the tour would be donated to quake reconstruction in Sichuan.

Founded in late 2002, the orchestra is one of the few symphony orchestras in the world that are privately funded. It boasts dozens of young instrumentalists, many of whom are also recognized soloists.

(CRIENGLISH.com October 17, 2008)