Way to Go: Annalisa Welinder, Port Jefferson

A Port Jefferson student violinist will perform with a prestigious local orchestra this spring after winning a contest for young musicians.

Annalisa Welinder, an eighth-grader at Port Jefferson Middle School, took the top spot last month in the 2015 Annual Young Performers Competition of the Island Symphony Orchestra, a Long Island-based nonprofit volunteer orchestra.

She now will get to perform a solo with the orchestra at a May 3 concert at Suffolk County Community College.

“I'm grateful to have the opportunity to perform,” said Welinder, 14, who began playing when she was 4. Of her strategy for music contests, she said: “Practice, practice, practice — and try not to get too nervous.”

Welinder said she submitted an audio recording to Island Symphony officials as part of a preliminary round and was invited for an in-person performance in February. There, she performed Pablo de Sarasate's “Carmen Fantasy.”

Last year, Welinder won first place in a solo competition coordinated by the Sound Symphony Orchestra in East Setauket, as well as second place in the Long Island Philharmonic's 26th Annual Young Artist Competition.

She has performed at the Oyster Bay Chamber Music Festival and is in both the World Youth Alliance Chamber Orchestra and The Juilliard School's pre-college ensemble.

In her school, Welinder is a member of the National Junior Honor Society, Yearbook Club, Student Council, Mathletes and the varsity tennis team.