Chloe Pang, the prodigiously talented 13-year-old who gained national attention when she appeared on "Late Show With David Letterman" last year, makes a local appearance this weekend on the "Pianomania!" series. This year's installment of the annual keyboard extravaganza is Sunday afternoon at the Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church; Chloe is one of eight pianists on the program, along with Daniel Glover, Stephen Bailey, Sujeeva Hapugalle, Bernardo Scarambone, Javier Gonzales, William Wellborn and Betty Woo.

Currently in the eighth grade, Chloe is remarkably modest about her musical achievements to date. She keeps up a schedule of schoolwork, rehearsals, performances and recording that would leave most of us exhausted. Yet when I caught up with her last week (in an interval between her after-school nap and her late-afternoon practice session), she said she was just like any other teenager.

Not all of her time is spent on music, she explained: She likes to read and "just hang out" with her friends. She also enjoys beading, and makes a lot of her own jewelry.

Still, Chloe seems happiest when she's talking about music. She loves playing and performing; she started piano lessons under her mother's tutelage at age 8, and has studied with Jim Gardner in Walnut Creek for the past four years. She has strong opinions about contemporary pianists -- not surprisingly, one of her favorites is another former prodigy, Evgeny Kissin.

"He puts everything into the music when he plays," she says. "He's really magnetic."

She also has definite goals -- one of which was achieved with her recent recording of the "Goldberg Variations." She began preparing Bach's complex, challenging work when she was 9. "It was my fantasy, ever since I listened to Glenn Gould's recording," she says. "I fell in love with the music. Each note was full of life. It was so inspiring, and that's what started me out. I studied it off and on for two years. Then, when I was 12, I really started to focus on it."

The only thing that upsets her, she says, is when people tell her she's "too young" -- a charge someone made when she was planning to take on the "Goldbergs." "I get a little mad when people say that," Chloe says. "But it just made me want to work harder. I think if you love it, you should follow your dream."

At this weekend's concert, she'll play Chopin's Etude in E major, Op. 10, No. 3, and Debussy's "L'Isle Joyeuse." She's particularly excited about the latter piece. "To me, it sounds like paradise," Chloe says. "It's just really dreamy."

"Pianomania!" starts at 2:30 p.m. at the Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church, 49 Knox Drive, Lafayette. Tickets are $22 general, $20 seniors and $10 youths. Call 925-943-2496 to reserve.

OAKLAND SYMPHONY'S 'WATERS': Tonight's Oakland East Bay Symphony concert features a groundbreaking collaboration between the orchestra, under the direction of Michael Morgan, and the California Poets in the Schools. Under Morgan's direction, the orchestra and Oakland Symphony Chorus will perform the world premiere of Hector Armienta's "Where Waters Meet." The new work incorporates a poem by Sonoma County fifth-grader Hailee Brumley; the text was one of 650 student writings considered by the composer. Hailee will serve as the narrator for the performance, which coincides with the 40th anniversary of California Poets in the Schools. Tonight's program also includes Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, Chabrier's "Espana" (performed side by side with the Oakland Youth Orchestra), and Verdi's Overture to "I Vespri Siciliani." The music begins at 8 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre, and tickets are $15-$60. 925-685-8497.

TWAIN'S TUNES: Considering his significance in American literature, Mark Twain has been paid pitifully scant attention by composers. Lukas Foss, who adapted his 1950 one-act opera "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" from a Twain story, is an exception. Franco Cesarini is another. Cesarini's "Huckleberry Finn Suite" makes its U.S. premiere on the Contra Costa Wind Symphony's program Sunday evening at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts; the orchestra under Duane Carroll will also play the Swiss composer's "Tom Sawyer Suite."

The event features a distinguished guest: Historian Robert Hirst, curator of the Mark Twain Papers at the Bancroft Library on the UC Berkeley campus, will be on hand to narrate another Twain-related work, "Tom Sawyer's Saturday."

Hirst, who has overseen the accumulation of a huge collection of the author's writings and memorabilia in his 35 years at the Bancroft, notes that he never tires of the job.

"If you're bored with Mark Twain," he says, "you either have no sense of humor, or you haven't been paying attention."

Sunday's concert, which also features vocal soloist Tom Hockenberry and a selection of American songs including "Shenandoah," begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Regional Center. Tickets, at $13 general, $11 seniors and $9 students, are available by calling 925-943-SHOW. For information, visit www.ccwindsymphony.org.

'DEAD MAN' DUO IN DENVER: Composer Jake Heggie and playwright/librettist Terrence McNally, whose collaboration on "Dead Man Walking" produced one of the most important operas of the late 20th century, are teaming up on a new work to open the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver. Heggie and McNally are reportedly already at work on the piece, which will have its world premiere as part of the new theater's grand opening Sept. 10. Soprano Renee Fleming will sing the first performance, with Heggie accompanying on piano.

The $86 million Ellie Caulkins Opera House is named for Denver philanthropist Eleanor N. Caulkins, also known as Denver's "First Lady of Opera."