Sacramento's Community Center Theater came to life Thursday with the beautiful sound of The Hutchins Consort. Presented by Sacramento Community Concerts, the group performed a one-night concert that defied the range of a modern symphony orchestra string section. The Hutchins Consort is a unique Southern California-based group that plays eight scaled violins of the violin octet design. These acoustically balanced instruments range from a high treble violin to a low contrabass violin and together cover the musical scale that today's string instrument, the violin, viola, cello and bass, do not. These eight instruments, three similar to a violin and five upright, were created by Dr. Carleen

The Sacramento Community Theatre was a full house providing a warm and enthusiastic welcome to Anthony and Joseph Paratore last night. There were many reasons I loved the concert and I am sure the audience could add many more. The concert was the third program of the Sacramento Community Concerts 2009-2010 season. The two brothers played four music pieces of wide varieties all composed for two pianos, the first half featured Russian composers and the second American. Both Anthony and Joseph were equally skillful and accomplished pianists with outstanding musicality. Yet, they showed contrasting personalities on stage and it made the concert even more interesting. Joseph with long and cu