Adriana Lombard discovered the joy of the violin when she was 8. Now a senior at the University of Southern Maine, where she’s studying biology and pursuing music as a hobby, she’s keenly aware that many kids don’t have the means to buy or rent instruments, which they need if they want to play in school and community bands.

To help eliminate that barrier, Lombard has organized a concert to raise money to start a lending library for musical instruments.

“Playing it Forward,” scheduled for 6 p.m. Sunday at the Orion Performing Arts Center in Topsham, will feature a symphony orchestra of musicians from throughout New England. Tickets, to be sold at the door, cost $15 for adults and $7 for kids.

All 55 musicians and conductor Shawn Cabey, former conductor of the New England Youth Chamber Ensemble and co-founder of the Youth Musicians Ensemble of Loma Linda, Calif., have volunteered to participate.

“When I was trying to round up a whole symphony, I started e-mailing people, and I can’t believe how generous people were with their time,” said Lombard, who lives in Freeport.

Lombard is forming a nonprofit, but doesn’t yet have a name for it. She’s calling the volunteer symphony the Camerata Musica of New England.

The concert will include selections from Mozart, Vivaldi, Dvorak, Prokofiev and Bach. “We specifically chose the music to be pleasing to a wide range of people,” Lombard said.

The first school that will be helped by the effort is in Argentina. When she was 17, Lombard was an exchange student at Instituto Juan Bautista Alberdi, in the province of Misiones. During the time she was there, she was surprised to learn that the small school had the desire, but not the funds, to start a music program.

The experience gave her the idea for the charitable effort. Lombard envisions the organization functioning like a library. Any student who wants to borrow from its collection would fill out a contract and return the instrument once the agreement expires.

She is now contacting local schools to determine whether there is any interest in such a program.

Her brother Peter Lombard, who owns a group travel company called Insouciance Abroad, is helping with the logistics of shipping the instruments internationally.

In addition to attending Sunday’s concert, people who want to contribute to the effort can donate used instruments. So far, Lombard has amassed a small collection of second-hand flutes, plus a guitar, an oboe, a violin and a cello.

To donate an instrument, contact Lombard at 239-2389.

 

Staff Writer Avery Yale Kamila can be contacted at 791-6297 or at: akamila@pressherald.com