Jewell Victoria Evans Memorial Donation

Jewell Evans was half of the Bob Evans business dynasty, creating recipes and providing her expertise in developing the restaurant chain that grew to include restaurants all up and down the east coast – all while raising a family of six children. It all started with Jewell’s recipe for Springfield Farm Sausage, as it was called for the first year and a half of their business.

Jewell loved music and she and Bob were part of the original Ariel Board of Directors formed in the late 1980s. Jewell and Bob lent their name and support to the fledgling organization that was created to become the home for The Ohio Valley Symphony, a new professional orchestra in Southeastern Ohio. Jewell rarely missed an Ohio Valley Symphony concert and loved talking about the performance at length afterwards. She recognized that music can elevate one’s soul in a way nothing else can, and her perennially upbeat mood and positive thinking mirrored what we work towards at the Ariel Opera House. One could never leave Jewell’s presence without being uplifted. She was the personification of her name and we will always treasure her time with us. We will miss her, but recognize how blessed we are to have had the chance to know her.

Visit the McCoy-Moore Funeral Homes, Inc. website for obituary.
Visit The Gallipolis Daily Tribune for an article celebrating the life of Jewell Evans.

2019-20 Season Subscription! The Ohio Valley Symphony

New Subscribers Buy Here Now!

New subscribers click the purple button to purchase your season subscription or call the Box Office at 740-446-ARTS (2787).  Existing subscribers who wish to keep their current seats call the Box Office to order!

Who would have thought back in 1989 when we had our first Ohio Valley Symphony concert on a bare stage with the audience on folding chairs and no heat, that such a powerhouse could come from that inauspicious beginning and grow and move forward to us now celebrating our 30th season as the only professional symphony orchestra in Ohio River valley, attracting world class musicians and globe trotting conductors?  But we did!  And we have a spectacular 30th season planned for you!

The 2019-20 Season will see on the Ariel stage three exciting maestros conducting The Ohio Valley Symphony in 6-concerts featuring world class soloists.

The Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Cultural & Performing Arts Centre and The Ohio Valley Symphony are 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations, Federal Tax ID# 31-1273779

OVS Songs of Rural America on WVPBS!

Songs of Rural America
Television Broadcast on WV-PBS
SATURDAY JULY 6

Mark your calendars now! July 6th at 6:00 pm ET The Ohio Valley Symphony with Michael Johnathon will be broadcast on WVPBS Channel 33. Songs of Rural America was recorded live at the historic Ariel Opera House in Gallipolis, Ohio.

WVPBS can be found by tuning to DishNet and Directv channel 33 or over-the-air channel 33.1.

(Please note that the screening event has been cancelled at the Colony Club due to its closing.)

SPRING STRINGS

April 27, 2019
at 7:30 p.m.

To cap off the season Peter Stafford Wilson will conduct the rousing April 27th Spring Strings concert.  Soloist Tim Berens encouraged his friend, Grammy nominated American composer Frank Proto, to premiere his newly written double bass concerto in the acoustically superb Ariel Opera House.  Frank was in agreement and decided to include Tim on guitar – giving you twice the pleasure at this April 27th concert!  The first half of the concert will feature Frank’s music and the second half will feature Tim’s arrangements.

Conductor Peter Stafford Wilson

Now in his seventeenth season as Music Director of Ohio’s Springfield Symphony Orchestra, PETER STAFFORD WILSON is one of the most exciting and talked about conductors of his generation. Concurrently, he holds the post of Music Director of the Westerville Symphony. He also fulfills his seventh season as Principal Conductor of Tulsa Ballet, leading three productions, including the annual holiday performances of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, with choreography by Artistic Director Marcello Angelini.

Peter Stafford Wilson’s leadership of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra continues to elicit praise from the public, musicians and press. Its 2005 Agriculture and the Arts Growing Together brought international attention to the organization, as did the sequel, American Made: Celebrating Our Manufacturing Heritage, which premiered in November 2007. The orchestra’s innovative series, “Night Lights,” has enjoyed steadily increasing sales and attendance. The recent endowment of the Music Director chair with gifts totaling one million dollars is further testimony to the community’s expanding support. Mr. Wilson and the SSO are the recipients of a 2009-2010 ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.

OPERA GALA-POLIS!

September 14, 2019
at 7:30 p.m.

The Ariel Opera House lives up to its name at the season opener on September 14th when Opera Gala-polis kicks off the season with acclaimed mezzo-soprano Katherine Rohrer under the able direction of Maestro Steven Huang.  Katherine’s Carmen sizzles!

Conductor Steven Huang

Maestro Steven Huang has conducted orchestras and operas across the country and throughout the world. At the age of twenty-one, he served as Music Director of the Bach Society Orchestra of Harvard University, where he received his undergraduate degree. While at Harvard, Mr. Huang also directed the Lowell House Opera (the oldest continuously running opera company in New England), in a critically acclaimed production of Kurt Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.

Mr. Huang has worked with musicians around the world, including California, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts, Ohio, Haiti, and Romania. He has held the position of Music Director of the University of Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the Central Illinois Youth Symphony, the Gilbert and Sullivan Players of Chicago, and the Bradley University Orchestra. In America, he has guest conducted professional ensembles such as the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, the Lake Shore Symphony (IL), and the Four Seasons Symphony (CA).