Young musicians, most in high school but some as young as middle school age, will perform in the annual Classics for a Cause on Friday, Nov. 12, at Asbury United Methodist Church in Salisbury.

Featuring mostly classical music, the Salisbury-Wicomico Arts Council event is returning this year after being canceled last year due to the pandemic and will be from 7 to around 9 p.m., said Riley Schoch, a 16-year-old Worcester Preparatory School student who has performed in previous years and now serves on the Board. Worcester Prep is in Berlin.

“This year should be a good one. We have added online viewing, with 25 individual performers playing at the venue as well as the Salisbury University Children’s Choir with 42 children, under the direction of Alice Wigfield,” he said.

A regional choir, open to children 9 to 15 years old, the Children’s Choir is a treble-voiced assembly, inclusive and diverse, created to provide youngsters with the opportunity to “perform a wide variety of choral literature,” according to the Salisbury University Website.

All the performers in Classics for a Cause are local, with most from Salisbury. They will include pianists, singers and instrumentalists.

“We will have some contemporary music. During auditions I heard some songs that were more contemporary but the majority of the music is classical,” Schoch said.

“There will be something for everybody. At the last show we had ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ bands,  pianos, something for everybody. It is not just for music players and it’s also not just for people who are parents coming out to watch their kids. These kids are really good,” he said, adding they rehearse for months.

“At minimum, for a classics piece, they start practicing  around the beginning of summer, maybe as early as April,” Schoch said.

Once young performers decide what selection they will present, they audition before a committee to be approved.

Therese Hamilton, Executive Director of SWAC, included accolades on the voicemail greeting for callers to the office, saying the performers are “amazing young people in our community whose  talents you won't believe.”

Classics for a  Cause will be livestreamed, she said, adding SWAC has a new Website at getswac.org that features an  interactive arts calendar and allows users to take virtual art lessons and watch virtual arts presentations.

Proceeds from Classics for a Cause will benefit SWAC  and its Instrument Barn. Members of the community donate gently used instruments that are repaired and cleaned then given to students to use until  high school graduation.

Tickets for Classics for a Cause are available from SWAC, any performer or at the door. Call SWAC at 410-543-2787.

Tickets costs $12 for SWAC members, $15 for non-members, $5 for those 4 to 12 years old, $10 for seniors and veterans and $7 for students 13 to 21 years old. There is no admission charge for children 3 and younger.

Schoch, who started taking piano lessons when he was 4, played “Farewell to the Piano” by Beethoven in Classics for a Cause last year.

“My parents and my grandparents were there. My golf coach came and brought his daughter. She is disabled and she loved it. It was really nice of him to come. He said he loved seeing me play. It was a little nerve-wracking. There were a lot of people there. You are playing in front of a  lot of people,” he said.

“Was I nervous? You bet. But it was pretty amazing.”