A SALUTE TO OUR VETERANS

November 9, 2019
at 7:30 p.m.

Last year’s Songs of Rural America pops concert, seen nationwide on television, let us know that you wanted pops added to our mix.  Maestro Tim Berens and Broadway tenor Mike Eldred (Jean Val Jean in Les Miserables) have a terrific Salute to Our Veterans concert on November 9th just in time for Veterans Day!

The concert will feature 4 world premieres of music by Tim and Louise Berens. These premieres include new arrangements of the classics When Johnny Comes Marching Home, Battle Hymn of the Republic, and Danny Boy, and a brand new composition entitled Messages from Mount Rushmore by Tim and Louise Berens.

Messages from Mount Rushmore was inspired by a 2008 visit to Mount Rushmore, when Tim wondered “What would they have to say to us today?” The piece contains wise, stirring, funny and inspirational quotes from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, accompanied by rousing music. Their messages offer guidance to navigating our modern, hectic world.

Tim Berens, conductor

Tim Berens’ multi-faceted career gives testament to his lifelong quest to learn, perform and write music. So far, his venture has led him through the worlds of classical guitar, jazz guitar, orchestral guitar, arranging, orchestration, composition, and conducting.

During his years as the guitarist for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Tim played guitar, banjo, mandolin and bouzouki on concerts, recordings, television programs, and tours. Beginning in the late 1990’s, Tim began arranging for the CPO, eventually becoming the orchestra’s principal arranger.

His arrangements are regularly performed in venues from Carnegie Hall to the Kennedy Center to the Hollywood Bowl.

THE CHRISTMAS SHOW!

December 7, 2019
at 7:30 p.m.

Last year’s sold out Christmas Show! concert under the baton of Maestro Steven Huang made it clear that this is one of your favorites.  Get your tickets early to this December 7th concert and make sure you don’t miss out!  And if you have ever had a secret desire to lift the baton and bring out beautiful music, you too could be a Maestro For A Moment at this annual symphony fundraiser.  Contact us to be a part of this fun and wonderful event.

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).

THE ROMANTIC CELLO

March 21, 2020
at 7:30 p.m.

Ilya Finkelshteyn, principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, will perform Dvorak’s lush Concerto for Cello on March 21st with Maestro Keitaro Harada on the podium.  Also, to stir your soul on the Romantic Cello program, is Brahms’ much loved Symphony No. 2.  Love is definitely in the air!

Conductor Keitaro Harada

Conductor Keitaro Harada continues to be recognized at the highest levels for his artistic abilities and passion for musical excellence. As a three-time recipient of The Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award (2014, 2015, 2016), Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview (2013), the Seiji Ozawa Conducting Fellowship at Tanglewood Music Festival, a student of Lorin Maazel at Castleton Festival and Fabio Luisi at Pacific Music Festival, Harada’s credentials are exemplary.

In his third season as Associate Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops, Harada regularly assists Music Director Louis Langrée and conducts the CSO, POPS, and World Piano Competition, and assists James Conlon and Juanjo Mena for the May Festival. Keitaro also holds the position of Associate Conductor of the Arizona Opera.

APPALACHIAN SPRING

April 25, 2020
at 7:30 p.m.

What’s better than one horn soloist? How about 4 of them! The entire horn section of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Erik Ralske, Hugo Valverde, Javier Gandara and Barbara Jöstlein Currie, is coming to the Ariel stage to perform the magnificent Schumann Konzertstück for 4 Horns on April 25th.  I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say you will be blown away! The OVS will also play one of my personal favorites, Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring.

Conductor Miriam Burns

Miriam Burns was on staff with the New York Philharmonic as one of their Cover Conductors from 1999-2007, having been appointed by Kurt Masur as a result of a competitive audition by-invitation-only.  In this capacity, she accompanied the orchestra on tour to the Far East as the tour Assistant Conductor to Music Director Lorin Maazel, and for eight years was entrusted as an assistant conductor on call for countless specific, fully prepared programs under many guest conductors of international repute.

Now in her eighth season as Music Director and Conductor of the Tysons McLean Orchestra (VA), Ms. Burns continues as Music Director of The Orchestra of the Redeemer in New York City since 1995.  Recent prior Music Directorships include the Tallahassee Symphony, the Kenosha Symphony and the Lawton Philharmonic. 

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.