Print edition: 
A benefit concert Tuesday at Wichita State University will feature Jonathan Okseniuk, a 5-year-old musical prodigy and YouTube sensation from Arizona.
During the concert, Jonathan will direct the St. Petersburg String Quartet, whose members are musicians in residence at WSU, along with a collection of young musicians. He’ll also perform on his violin.
Jonathan was recruited for the concert by Alla Aranovskaya, the violinist in the St. Petersburg Quartet. She saw his YouTube video, which features the boy feverishly conducting to recorded music in his living room, and was impressed by his advanced ability. She invited him to her summer academy and then to perform in Wichita.
To date, the YouTube video featuring Jonathan has been viewed more than 7 million times. (To see it, log onto YouTube and search for “kid conductor.”)
The concert, which will be at Wiedemann Recital Hall on the WSU campus, will raise money for the St. Petersburg International Music Academy that Aranovskaya and her fellow musicians plan to open at WSU. The academy will accept young children with orchestral promise and rigorously train them on their instruments and in musical theory.
The concert also will include a group of 16 high school- and college-aged musicians assembled by Aranovskaya.
