Strings will be the thing at El...

Strings will be the thing at El Camino College Saturday, as four musicians showcase a variety of instruments in “Festival of Strings.”

The first portion of the four-part program at El Camino’s Marsee Auditorium will feature Italian Romantic selections, with Emanuil Sheynkman playing mandolin, the newest member of the lute family, and Richard Patterson playing guitar.

Sheynkman, who studied at the Rimsky Korsakov Conservatory in Leningrad, has conducted Russian symphony and film orchestras, and arranged music for Hollywood film scores. Patterson is a concert guitarist who heads the guitar department at the College of Notre Dame in Belmont, Calif.

In the second portion of the program, classical guitarist Marc Teicholz, a teacher at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, will play selections including “Capricho Arabe” by Francisco Tarrega and “Usher Waltz, Op. 29” (after Edgar Allan Poe) by Nikita Koshkin.

He will be followed in the evening’s third performance by Guillermo Rios, a flamenco guitarist who studied guitar in Spain, performed in Madrid flamenco clubs and went on to accompany leading Spanish dance companies and perform solo concerts in Spain, Canada and the United States. Rios will play four of his own compositions.

In the last scheduled portion of Saturday’s “Festival of Strings,” Sheynkman, this time playing the balalaika, a three-stringed Russian folk instrument, will return to the stage with Patterson to play Russian music ranging from modern compositions to “Russian Potpourri,” a collection of Russian folk music arranged by Sheynkman.

What: “Festival of Strings”

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: El Camino College’s Marsee Auditorium, Torrance

Tickets: $14

Information: (310) 329-5345 or (800) 832-ARTS