Maestro for a Moment FUN-draiser 2022-23

The Ohio Valley Symphony’s annual Maestro for a Moment Fundraiser is one of the highlights of the season for both audience and orchestra! Each season three candidates vie for the opportunity to conduct the orchestra during the The Christmas Show! on December 3rd, 2022, in a rousing rendition of Sleigh Ride! This year’s candidates are Kaiti Dovyak, from the OVS’s first string class and a founding member of the Ohio Valley Youth Orchestra; Robin Fowler, the State Farm Insurance Agent located just down the street on Second Avenue; and Marilyn Wills, the vocal and instrumental teacher with Gallipolis City Schools.

Make your tax-deductible donation now!
Click one – or all! – of the Paypal links above!

Ariel’s Merry Tubachristmas! 2022

Join the fun at the ARIEL’S MERRY TUBACHRISTMAS!
December 10, 2022 at 2 pm
FREE CONCERT!

MERRY TUBACHRISTMAS is celebrating its 49th Anniversary (1974-2022). Created by Harvey Phillips, MERRY TUBACHRISTMAS 2022 will be presented in over 300 cities throughout the United States and in several foreign countries. TUBACHRISTMAS ensembles may attract participants aged 8 to over 90 years! The warm, rich organ-like sound of tuba-euphonium choir has won the ears and hearts of every audience!

Come and Listen 100% FREE!
TUBACHRISTMAS is 100% FREE for audience members who just want to come into our hall and experience the event. No tickets are necessary. It’s sure to be loads of fun, and will get you in the Christmas Spirit! Always the second Saturday in December at 2 pm.

-OR-
Join in the Fun and PLAY ALONG!

Pre-Register to Participate Today!

Bring your Tuba, Baritone, Euphonium, or other big brass buddy and join in the fun at the Ariel Theatre! Participants pay  $10 to participate and will receive a 2022 commemorative button! Plus there are lots of souvenirs and music books available for purchase! Register at the door, or save time and Pre-Register and we’ll have everything ready for you when you arrive!

Registration begins at 10:30am ~ Rehearsal begins at 11:00am

Yuletide Joy!

Sunday, December 11, 2022
3:00 p.m.
FREE CONCERT!

Join us in the historic Ariel Chamber Theatre as we unwrap the beauty of the season through the gift of music!

Music teachers Rebecca Honett and John McAlister bring together the talented students of The Ariel Academy to present vocal and piano performances featuring favorite holiday carols, classical standards, and contemporary classics – with favorites from the Broadway stage and silver screen.

From intimate solo performances to eight hands playing four keyboards simultaneously, there’s sure to be something for everyone. We invite all families and friends to share in this joyous afternoon that is sure to make your season merry and bright! And don’t forget to make post-recital plans to visit Gallipolis in Lights, a dazzling display of thousands of twinkling lights in Gallipolis City Park, as the perfect kiss goodnight to this festive day.

Lunch & Learn, New Frontiers in Advertising

December 13, 2022
at 11:00 a.m.
Ariel Chamber Theatre
Free! Register Now!

Put a new perspective on your new year’s marketing endeavors!

Allen White, marketing consultant for WCHS will present new and innovative methods of digital advertising.  He will delve into OTT, search optimization, social media services, email marketing, mobile, web services, and more, to help understand where your businesses can get the most out of your advertising budget.

This presentation of New Frontiers in Advertising is held in conjunction with the Gallia County Chamber of Commerce.  A link will be provided to those who would like to attend the meeting virtually, just let us know when you register!

Presented by Women’s Business Center of Central Appalachia at Shawnee State University.

Building a Practical Marketing Strategy that Works

August 24, 2022
at 11:00 a.m.
Ariel Chamber Theatre
Free! Register Now!
Chris Kanski, owner of New Pillar Marketing, has been working in the web and marketing realm for over 12 years. He earned his bachelor’s in marketing from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2008 and has since had the privilege of working for numerous businesses in varying sectors. These experiences have helped to fuel his real passion: Entrepreneurship. In May 2019 he made the leap to make his own business, New Pillar Marketing, a full-time reality.

With New Pillar Marketing, Chris has been able to serve dozens of business owners, new and established, in reaching their full marketing potential. He has been inspired by the creativity and resilience of owners and entrepreneurs and is looking forward to watching them grow.

Chris believes that by bringing businesses together to explore their marketing needs, they can better serve their customers and communities. Presentations such as Building a Practical Marketing Strategy That Works is a way to help them achieve their goals and fulfill their potential and purpose.

Presented by Women’s Business Center of Central Appalachia at Shawnee State University.

OVS Gets Hip In Its 20’s

OVS Gets Hip In Its 20’s
By Thomas Consolo

Like most twenty-somethings, the Ohio Valley Symphony is offering a combination of hip style and traditional flair for its next season.

The 2011-12 series marks the OVS’s 22nd season as southeast Ohio’s only professional orchestra. The five programs cover repertoire ranging from R&B to classical mainstays to holiday favorites. They also feature a lineup of world-class guest artists, including the world’s first electric harpist and a father-son team of trumpet virtuosos.

That variety is key both to the OVS’s mission and its two decades of success, said Lora Lynn Snow, the orchestra’s founder and executive director. “Great music comes in all kinds of packages,” she said, “and we try to show people all the things an orchestra can do. It’s a lot more than just symphonies.”

That will be clear enough to the audience from the first program, dubbed “Hip Harp” for soloist Deborah Henson-Conant. The Grammy-nominated performer, composer and songwriter has built a renegade image on her evocative singing voice and the 36-string, custom-built electric harness harp she plays. Her programs fuse theater, stories and virtuosic playing skill and cover genres from ballads to jazz to flamenco.

For Ray Fowler, the OVS music director, Henson-Conant was an obvious choice. “This is a person who will reach right into the heart and soul of the audience,” he said. “She’s just so natural on stage.”

It’s more than showmanship, he continued. “I was so impressed with how thoughtful she was about her choice of pieces,” Fowler said. “She wanted to choose just the right repertoire to reach our audience.”

Henson-Conant’s performance opens the OVS season on Oct. 8 in Point Pleasant Junior/Senior High School’s Wedge Auditorium. It’s the third year the orchestra has performed in Point Pleasant, including a concert to help dedicate the facility’s completion. “We can’t expect everyone to come to us,” Snow said, “so we’re happy to go to them to let them know about this organization.”

The season’s other four performances will be at the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre. The downtown Gallipolis landmark has been reborn thanks to a dedicated citizen-based restoration effort sparked by Snow. It was renamed to honor a gift by Meigs County native Ann Carson Dater, who wanted to ensure that the hall be a permanent home for the orchestra.

The season’s other bookend shows a different kind of virtuosity in violinist Chin Kim. “He’ll reach the audience in a different way,” Fowler said, “and the story will be through the sounds.”

Kim will play Max Bruch’s first violin concerto on April 28, 2012, as part of a program called “The Romantics.” The contrast between the two artists “is the extreme of the season,” Fowler said. It shows just how different music can be, all while touching people deeply.

“The Romantics” also features one of the best-loved orchestral masterpieces of the 19th century, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. It traces a hopeful journey against fate to a joyous finale.

November brings pianist Lori Sims back to the stage of the Ariel to perform the second concerto of Johannes Brahms. Sims is “one of the best-kept secrets of the piano world,” according to Fowler. “Her playing has such integrity and such heart. She’ll bring the audience through the piece.”

The Nov. 5 concert pairs the Brahms with the youthful Symphony No. 2 of Ludwig van Beethoven. For audiences who automatically equate Beethoven with forceful Romanticism, the second symphony is an eye opener full of wry humor and the kind of balance his teacher, Franz Joseph Haydn, would have approved.

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.