CELTIC DREAMS, The Ohio Valley Symphony

March 21, 2026
at 7:30 p.m.
TICKETS ON SALE MAY 15

Maestro Peter Stafford Wilson takes us to the British Isles for an evening of Celtic Dreams on March 21 with  an evening of music from Ireland, Scotland and England. Doreen Carwithen’s pastoral Suffolk Suite opens the program and Concertmaster Manami White performs Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending. The OVS offers up Malcolm Arnold’s Scottish Dances, Leroy Anderson’s Irish Suite and the evocative Shropshire Lad by George Butterworth.

Peter Stafford Wilson, conductor
Peter Stafford Wilson is Music Director of Ohio’s Springfield Symphony Orchestra. Concurrently, he holds the post of Music Director of the Westerville Symphony, and was named Principal Conductor of Tulsa Ballet in 2012. With the SSO he has brought international attention for Agriculture and the Arts Growing Together and American Made: Celebrating Our Manufacturing Heritage and a new multi-media, multi discipline production of Gustav Holst’s The Planets resulted in a sellout house. Mr. Wilson held the posts of Assistant and Associate Conductor of The Columbus Symphony Orchestra for 28 seasons. Mr. Wilson has had enormous community reaction and has been recognized as “Best Music Director” and “Best in the ‘Bus 2015” for his work in Columbus. He also served as Music Director of the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra, which he has regularly led in local and regional concerts.

During Mr. Wilson’s 25 year tenure, the SSO has more than doubled its public offerings and seen its budget and community financial support grow more than 500%. Mr. Wilson has led over 100 performances with BalletMet Columbus.

A native of North Carolina, Mr. Wilson studied at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, where his primary mentor was the late Thomas Schippers. During his years at CCM, he became a leading exponent of contemporary music, often collaborating with faculty and student composers, including the Conservatory’s Visiting Professor of Composition, Lukas Foss. He also studied at the Aspen Music School, where he studied with Dennis Russell Davies, Eastern Music Festival (on whose faculty he subsequently served), Pierre Monteux School, Boris Goldovsky Summer Opera Institute and Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, where he was associated with Franco Ferrara. He has work with Canton Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and The Cleveland Orchestra and has guest conducted the orchestras of Bozeman, Charlotte, Chautauqua, Dallas, Detroit, Erie, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Louisville, North Carolina, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Roanoke, Seattle, Syracuse, Tucson, Tulsa, West Virginia, Wheeling and Youngstown. He also led the Independence Day Concert with Peter Nero’s Philly Pops Orchestra and the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic’s highly popular “Awesome Classics” series, as well as programs with Orquesta Filarmónica de Montevideo and Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra in China. No stranger to the lyric theater, Mr. Wilson has held the positions of Principal Conductor of South Carolina’s Opera Charleston and Music Director of the Ohio Light Opera and conducted performances at Spoleto Festival USA, Young Artists Opera Theater, College Light Opera, Canton Lyric Opera and Otterbein College Opera Theatre.

Mr. Wilson and his wife, Barbara Karam Wilson, Director of Corporate Tax for the White Castle System, reside in Westerville, Ohio. When not conducting, he enjoys traveling, golf and reading. He is also a wine enthusiast and an avid gourmet cook. Wilson and his wife also serve as staff for their two rescue kitties, Murphy and Smidgen.

Manami White, violin
The Ohio Valley Symphony’s concertmaster Manami White has performed both nationally and internationally with orchestras, chamber ensembles, and in numerous recital settings. An associate member of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and an extra violinist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, she is also concertmaster of Collegium Cincinnati, the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra and acting Principal Second violinist of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, is guest concertmaster for the Richmond Symphony.

She has also toured internationally with the American Sinfonietta. Manami’s solo performances include appearances with the North Florida Symphony Orchestra, MUSE, and the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. She has won First Prize honors in the Hemphill-Wells Sorantin Young Artist Competition, the Dorothy Starling Competition, and the concerto competition at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Also an accomplished chamber musician, Manami has performed in the CCM Faculty and Alumni Chamber Music Series, the Taft Chamber Music Series, the Contemporary Arts Center Chamber Music Series and the Knox Music Series. Manami is Adjunct Professor of Violin and Viola at Xavier University.

Manami, originally from Seattle, received her bachelor’s degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and continued post-graduate work there. Past teachers have included Dorothy DeLay, Naoko Tanaka, Makoto Kaneshiro, and Katsutoshi Nakamura.

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