Michael Johnathon’s Songs of Rural America, The Ohio Valley Symphony

October 6, 2018 at 7:30 p.m.
$28 reserved seats

MICHAEL JOHNATHON’S SONGS OF RURAL AMERICA comes to the historic Ariel Opera House for a special concert featuring THE OHIO VALLEY SYMPHONY.

“Yes, I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can find his way by moonlight, and see the dawn before the rest of the world.” – Oscar Wilde

Among the throngs of musicians in the folk world, few have elevated “dreaming” to such a high art form as Michael Johnathon. From composing the Woody Guthrie Opera to writing the Walden play, creating the national Song Farmers movement to producing the wildly successful broadcast of the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour, solo concert tours of coffeehouses to recording his song The Dream about the earth at piece with a 61-piece orchestra and choirs in English, French, Spanish and Russian, his accomplishments can easily overshadow a very important point: Michael Johnathon is an excellent musician.

“Once upon a time, rural America was built on the music and conversation of families who relaxed at the end of the day playing music on their front porches,” says Johnathon from his log cabin home in Kentucky. “The front porch was the grand pulpit of every community, the gathering place for family, friends and neighbors. It was the greatest stage in the world, filled with musicians every evening singing together as the sun went down.”

He is quick to point out that America, as a community, has lost its sense of its own front porch.

“As soon as they invented TV and air conditioning, everybody fled inside,” he says. “They don’t even build front porches on new homes any more. For the past 50 years, the great feng shui welcome of a new home was the garage door. The thing you leave by is what welcomes your friends.”

Among his many ongoing accomplishments is the sustained creation of an international, live audience syndicated broadcast called the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour. The show airs on 515 radio stations from Australia to Boston to Dublin, Ireland. It also airs on American Forces Radio Network twice each weekend in 173 nations, every military base and US Naval ship in the world. The shows airs coast-to-coast in millions of TV homes as a public TV series. Now Friday and Wednesday’s on RFDTV. What is especially striking about the production is that it is completely volunteer run and available free of charge to schools and home school families with lesson plans.

World Premiere Performance
It is the success of WoodSongs that makes the broadcast recording of Songs of Rural America so important. It will be not only recorded for broadcast on nearly 600 public radio stations, it will also air on American Forces Radio Network in 173 nations plus be filmed for a public television TV special.

The concept behind this concert tour is to bring a sense of America’s front porch spirit onto classical orchestra stages nationwide. The concert at the historic Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre in Gallipolis, Ohio is the world premiere of the tour.

HOLLYWOOD SOUNDS

November 3, 2018
at 7:30 p.m.

Keitaro Harada is a dazzling presence on the podium and conducts the Cincinnati Symphony and around the world.  He is bringing with him the stunning violin prodigy Christina Nam to perform Korngold’s lush Violin Concerto.  Included in this November 3rd concert, Harada is presenting composer Matt Jackfert for a world premiere of two works.

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.

THE CHRISTMAS SHOW!

December 1, 2018
at 7:30 p.m.

Gallipolis’ own Steven Huang will be leading the symphony for the annual Christmas Show! on December 1st with a heartwarming selection of your holiday favorites.  Soprano Melissa Brobeck and tenor Kelly Burns will add to the beautiful sounds of your favorite selections.  This is one of the most popular concerts of the year, so be sure to purchase extra tickets with your subscription so friends and relatives can sit close by your season seats!

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.

THE RED VIOLIN

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

Elizabeth Pitcairn asked if she could come back to perform on our 30th Anniversary concert March 30th, and of course we said a resounding Yes!  She will bring her infamous Red Mendelssohn Stradivarius and will be joined by Maestro Miriam Burns on the podium for a wonderful evening of beautiful music you won’t soon forget.

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 then new 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.

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.