MOSTLY MENDELSSOHN!

October 2, 2021
at 7:30 p.m.
Concert will be at Wedge Auditorium at Pt. Pleasant WV Jr./Sr. High School.
Purchase Tickets Now

We re-open The Ohio Valley Symphony season as we celebrate the life of Ariel Board President Paul Simon when his longtime family friend, Elizabeth Pitcairn, joins The Ohio Valley Symphony in a program of Mostly Mendelssohn.

This season opens with Mendelssohn’s energizing and uplifting Symphony No. 4 and Elizabeth performs the much loved Concerto for Violin, Op. 64, under the baton of Maestro Scott Woodard.

Purchase your season subscription so you don’t miss a single note of this new season!

Sponsored by

Scott Woodard, conductor
Dr. Scott E. Woodard is the Music Director of the Butler Philharmonic Orchestra in Hamilton, Ohio, the Ashland Ballet Orchestra, and is the Founding Music Director and Conductor of the West Virginia State Philharmonic Orchestra (formerly known as the Charleston Chamber Orchestra). Woodard’s study and pursuit of conducting has taken him all over the world.

BIG BAND BLAST!

November 6, 2021
at 7:30 p.m.
Concert will be at Wedge Auditorium at Pt. Pleasant WV Jr./Sr. High School
Purchase Tickets Now

75 years ago at the end of World War II the music style of the Big Band era was flourishing and Cleveland Pops conductor Carl Topilow will lead the The Ohio Valley Symphony through a rousing romp of the stylings of Glenn Miller, Hoagie Carmichael, Irvin Berlin and other big band greats.

In this Veterans Day celebration, Carl will invoke the spirit of Benny Goodman when he picks up his clarinet and joins in the fun.
Veterans get a 10% ticket discount, order tickets online today!

Sponsored by

Carl Topilow, conductor and clarinetist
Carl Topilow is renowned worldwide for his versatility, whether he is holding a conductor’s baton or his trademark red clarinet. He is a multi-talented virtuoso who is equally at home in classical and popular music both as conductor and instrumentalist.

THE CHRISTMAS SHOW!

December 4, 2021
at 7:30 p.m.
Purchase Tickets Now

In this season of hope and renewal The Ohio Valley Symphony will warm your hearts with their annual Christmas Show under the baton of Steven Huang. Traditional carols along with newer holiday favorites will awaken your holiday spirit.

Gather family and friends and get your tickets early as it is always sold 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.

Sponsored by

Steven Huang, conductor
Maestro Steven Huang is thrilled to return to Southeastern Ohio to the podium of The Ohio Valley Symphony.  He has conducted orchestras and operas across the country and throughout the world.

PERFECTLY PARISIAN!

March 26, 2022
at 7:30 p.m.
Purchase Tickets Now

Takes you on a musical visit to 19th century Paris when Phantom of the Opera star Geena Jeffries Mattox joins The Ohio Valley Symphony for some Perfectly Parisian music. Carline Waugh joins in the fun as well and both sopranos finish off the evening with some delicious duets.

Steven Huang, conductor
Maestro Steven Huang is thrilled to return to Southeastern Ohio to the podium of The Ohio Valley Symphony. He has conducted orchestras and operas across the country and throughout the world.

At the age of twenty-one Mr. Huang 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). Most recently, he successfully concluded a sixteen-year appointment as Associate Professor and Director of Orchestras at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where he brought the program to new achievements, including earning competitive accolades and awards from Ohio Music Educators Association and Columbus Roundtable Awards, through over 200 performances, including symphonic concerts, opera, musical theater, and Halloween pops.

THE ROARIN’ TWENTIES!

April 23, 2022
at 7:30 p.m.
Purchase Tickets Now

100 years ago a new age was dawning, the skirts were shorter, the money flowed freely and the the Roarin’ Twenties brought in a whole new style of American music. Be at the Ariel Opera House on April 23rd to celebrate an entire concert of brand new arrangements of Roarin’ Twenties music by Cincinnati Pops Principal Arranger Tim Berens featuring vocalist Mandy Gaines and pianist Michael Chertock.

Be the first to hear these brand new arrangements as the concert will be recorded live by a Grammy winning recording engineer as he and his team capture it all for public television and radio broadcast as well as a CD. Be a part of this special occasion and purchase your tickets today!!

Sponsored by

Tim Berens, conductor and arranger
Tim has walked a unique path. While studying classical guitar at CCM, an injury forced him to stop playing guitar. During the years-long recovery, he studied computer science, took a job writing software, and soon owned a small software development company, Back Office Applications. His software is used in grocery stores around the world to this day.

A Video History of the Ariel Opera House

Watch the history of the Ariel Opera House unfold – from it’s opening on Christmas Day 1895 to the present.  Narrated by the founder and Executive Director Lora Lynn Snow.

Ohio Arts Council Governor’s Awards for the Arts Winner

ARTS ADMINISTRATION
Lora Snow, Executive Director
at the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre,
Home of the Ohio Valley Symphony
Gallipolis

Lora Lynn Snow is the founder and executive director of the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre in Gallipolis, home of the Ohio Valley Symphony. Lora, an oboist, was inspired in 1987 to form a professional orchestra in Gallia County and recognized the amazing acoustics in the long-neglected 1895 Ariel Opera House that had been abandoned for 25 years. Lora spearheaded the restoration and set about to organize the community toward the grand reopening of the historic Ariel in 1990 with a performance of the Ohio Valley Symphony. Mrs. Ann Carson Dater gifted the Ariel as a permanent home to the Ohio Valley Symphony (OVS) in 2005, which added an additional theatre, conference room, and banquet rooms. The OVS, now in its 30th season as the only professional orchestra in the Ohio River Valley, recently premiered Songs of Rural America on PBS nationwide with folk singer Michael Johnathon.

Having a holistic view of the arts, Lora also established a music education program, a double reed festival, a community theatre troupe, and OVS woodwind and dance programs at the Ariel. An active recitalist, clinician, and consultant with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music performance and education from the Ohio State University, Lora has taught at several universities and public schools covering kindergarten through graduate level inclusive. She is principal oboist for the Ohio Valley Symphony and OVS Woodwind Quintet, a member of the West Virginia Symphony, and a freelance musician.

Paul Robert Simón, In Memoriam

Paul Robert Simón
President, Ariel Board of Directors

From Executive Director
Lora Lynn Snow

Paul Simón, President of the Ariel Board of Directors, passed away February 25, 2021. He transformed the board bringing in members with a wide variety of professional skills and he led us ever upward as we completed the restoration of our 1895 opera house. He will be greatly missed.

Paul was a renaissance man. He ran his farm but once owned an antique shop. He was head of the Mason County Emergency Team that stepped in to work at a moment’s notice, and he collected art. While working on the Main Street Committee he found out a community’s ranking could be elevated with certain amenities so he started an art gallery in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Through his many contacts he was able to get the Pitcairn family to loan art work to The Gallery at 409 – and while he was at it, he also found a soloist in the same family, violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn, for The Ohio Valley Symphony.

Ariel Academy Online Music Lessons

The Ariel Academy is designed to help you find a teacher to guide you through your musical journeys. Whether you need to find a piano teacher for your first grader or are a professional taking orchestral auditions, a college student needing help with music theory or an aspiring composer needing guidance, you can set up one or more lessons with one of The Ohio Valley Symphony’s musicians.