Music lovers can enjoy the final performance of the season from some of Douglas County’s youngest musicians courtesy of the Douglas County Youth Orchestra.

The orchestra presents its spring concert, titled “Tango in the Spring” featuring a special performance of an award-winning piece by local composer Susan Day.

Day hails from Littleton but spent years honing her musical talents as a teacher at Cresthill Middle and Eagle Ridge Elementary schools, both in Highlands Ranch.

A lifelong musician, Day began seriously composing her own music in 1994, when she retired from the high school classroom and found herself with more time on her hands.

With the help of a digital piano and her computer-savvy son, she has since composed a number of pieces, including “Tango D’Amour” a piece that in 2006 won the coveted Texas Orchestra Director’s Association Composition Contest.

It was Day’s seventh entry in the contest over a period of 12 years and is one of two pieces that will be featured in a joint performance from the youth orchestra’s junior symphony and chamber orchestra.

The junior symphony comprises younger performers with about three year’s of experience and the chamber orchestra features the more advanced performers between grades eight and 12, said Cheryl Poules, executive director of the Douglas County Youth Orchestra.

The orchestra was founded in 2003 and reorganized in 2007 to open the door of opportunity to younger musicians, Poules said. The youngest performer in the orchestra is 10 and the oldest is about 18, in field that has nearly doubled in size since this time last year, she said.

The increase in interest could be in part because the Douglas County School District has discontinued most beginning instrument instruction as part of its district-wide budget cuts, Poules said.

“We’re starting to notice an increase in auditions,” she said. “We’re expanding our program next year to offer group instruction in band and orchestras.”

Poules, who also acts as the orchestra’s conductor, selected the piece by Day after an association that began at the school district. Day’s tango is one of several she has written and was a good fit with the orchestra’s spring theme.

Day typically composes about three to four pieces a year in creative bursts that she tries to capture as soon as they hit.

“It comes in spurts, it’s intense,” she said. “You have to get it down on paper right away before you forget. It’s a time-consuming labor of love.”

To listen to Day’s music, visit her Web site at www.smhdmusic.com.

The Douglas County Youth Orchestra’s spring performance is at 7 p.m., April 25 at New Hope Presbyterian Church at 2100 Meadows Boulevard in Castle Rock. Admission is free and donations are accepted.

For more information call Poules at 303-941-9448 or visit the Web site at douglascountyyouthorchestra.org.