When trying to name the most memorable composers of the past -- whether they wrote music in 1650 or 1850, in Austria or in France -- all of them usually have one thing in common: They are men.

The Pennsylvania Centre Chamber Orchestra will ignore those recognizable names in order to feature three pieces by female composers in honor of Women's History Month at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Centre County, 780 Waupelani Drive Extension.

Douglas Meyer, musical director of the orchestra, said because classical female composers are not widely recognized by audiences, their music isn't performed often.

"It feels sort of sad when you think about all the music that could have been written by women, but there was no interest in it for a long time," he said.

The concert will feature the premiere of "Hand Games," a piece by contemporary composer Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum. The composer grew up in New England, then moved to State College with her family while she was in high school.

As a student at State College Area High School, she organized her own concert dedicated to women composers.

"It's unfortunate, but most people can't name any women composers," she said.

The orchestra commissioned Kroll-Rosenbaum to write the piece, which is inspired by children's clapping games like "Pattycake" and "Miss Mary Mac."

Kroll-Rosenbaum said she enjoys writing music inspired by elements of everyday life.

"It's a celebration of beautiful things that we don't necessarily think are beautiful," she said.

The piece was written for a piano and a nine-person ensemble, known as a nonet, that includes one of each of the major woodwind and string instruments.

James Lyon, violinist for the chamber orchestra and Penn State School of Music professor, said Kroll-Rosenbaum's work instructs musicians to play some of the hand games during the performance.

"That should be a lot of fun for the audience," he said. "It should add a moment of levity to the concert."

Kroll-Rosenbaum said she re-searched the games by watching videos on YouTube.com and found that both children and adults play them.

"It's not just a childhood thing, and it goes across cultures," she said.

The counting patterns and rhythmic qualities of the games seem easy, Kroll-Rosenbaum said, but can become quite difficult.

"It's the kind of thing that you could see two 8-year-olds playing, but it's a really sophisticated counting pattern as it gets longer and longer," she said.

Kroll-Rosenbaum will speak more about the piece with a pre-concert introduction beginning at 6:45 p.m. She graduated with a master's degree from the Julliard School and now lives in Los Angeles, where she composes for TV, movies and video games in addition to her orchestral compositions.

"Every day's a different music-making experience," she said.

Five members of the orchestra will also perform a piece for wind quintet by female French composer Claude Arrieu and the other four players will return for another piece written for nonet by Louise Farrenc.

Lyon said the Farrenc piece, written in 1850, uses a theme and develops it in a traditional way, while creating a full sound incorporating each player.

"It's very large scale. Certainly, in view of chamber music, that's as big as you're going to get," he said.

Lyon said he thinks women composers during that time must have been determined, especially if their pieces were performed in public, which was a rarity.

"I don't think we have a perspective of how hard it was for a woman," he said. "They had really done all the things their male contemporaries had done, except they were women."

Meyer said because female composers aren't often featured, this could be a rare opportunity to hear some of this music.

"The music is out there, but getting it played is a problem," he said, "so we're trying to help."