Welcome to the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre, the historic Ariel Opera House, permanent home of The Ohio Valley Symphony, in the heart of Gallipolis, Ohio. Explore our website for upcoming performances and events, lessons, directions, and history! Be sure to contact the Ariel Opera House Box Office at 740-446-ARTS (2787) if you have any questions or if we may help you in planning your next visit to Gallipolis.

April 25, 2026
at 7:30 p.m.

People everywhere will be celebrating America’s 250th birthday in 2026 and the OVS has commissioned Tim Berens to write a special selection celebrating the life of Harriet Tubman for a performance on April 25. Tim’s poignant arrangement of Amazing Grace that was recently featured at the grand re-opening of the Notre Dame Cathedral will be sung on the Ariel stage by vocalist Mandy Gaines along with other selections as part of the nation’s festivities. Be a part of the creation of another live recording for later release on American Public Television.

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. Be a part of this special occasion and purchase your tickets today!

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.

Self employment allowed Tim to pursue his lifelong dream to be a musician. So far, Tim’s dream 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 international tours. In the late 1990’s, Tim began arranging for the CPO. His arrangements enriched concerts, CDs, and television broadcasts.

Tim’s arranging caught the ears of others and he began receiving commissions from leading conductors and orchestras. His arrangements and compositions are performed hundreds of times per year by orchestras throughout the United States and abroad, in venues from Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl.

In 2010, Tim returned to school to study conducting. After earning a Master Degree in Orchestral Conducting, he began conducting professionally.

Tim’s most recent project is the Berens Pops Library, a library of music for pops orchestras, which was created in response to demand from orchestras to perform his works.

Throughout his professional career Tim performed regularly at jazz clubs, releasing 4 jazz recordings on the Red Mark label under his own name along the way.

Tim’s most nerve wracking performance took place in 1975. Not even the duet he performed with Kristin Chenoweth at Carnegie Hall induced more gut-wrenching performance anxiety than when his band, Holy Terror, performed Smoke on the Water in the Van Buren Junior High School Talent Show. Holy Terror, which consisted of Tim, his neighbor PJ, and PJ’s sister, Cara, would be very impressed that today Tim is conducting symphony orchestras.

An avid chess player (E4) and an enthusiastic, but bad golfer, Tim is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and The Ohio State University.

Visit BerensPopsLibrary.com for more information.

Mandy Gaines, vocalist
Mandy Gaines is a talented, versatile vocalist and entertainer with more than 30 years of professional experience.  She entertains and delights audiences throughout the world. Her performances are viewed as refreshing, soulful and exciting.  She continues to improve and grow through her gifted interpretations of Jazz, Pop, R&B and Soul classics as well as writing and performing her original works.

Mandy began singing at an early age in school and church. She holds a B.A. from the College of Wooster in Speech/Arts. She has continued her studies through private vocal instruction and various workshops emphasizing oral interpretation, jazz improvisation, and vocal technique, theatre and broadcasting/media studies.

Mandy has performed with such Jazz greats as, Wynton Marsalis, Dany Doriz, Randy Brecker, Scott Hamilton, ElDee Young, Red Holt, Rhoda Scott, Deborah Brown, Brad Leali, Bryan Lynch, Keith Loftis, Marcus Printup, Wendall Brunious, Brian Simpson, Vincent Gardner, Wes “warm daddy” Anderson, Michael Stanton and Victor Gaskins.

Mandy was recruited by Coca-Cola Taiwan to become part of an original recording and performing group, “MIT.” With the band she toured island wide to promote their release, “We Can Be One.” She also went on to record with several Asian pop stars as well as maintaining a spot as an on-air radio personality at I.C.R.T., Taiwan’s number one American-Chinese language radio station.

In the ‘90s Mandy returned to her theatre roots and was hired as featured vocalist at “The Oldenberg Dinner Theatre Entertainment Complex” and “The Star of Cincinnati.”  After first traveling to Europe, Mandy returned to Cincinnati and was chosen to be the opening act for Herbie Hancock.  Shortly after, she was nominated “Best R&B” vocalist in Cincinnati’s annual music award show, “The Cammy’s.”  Mandy has been a back-up vocalist for Asian Artist as Harlem Yu and Emil Chou. She has performed for British and American troops at Diego Garcia, Military Base, Indian Ocean.

Upon traveling to Europe she met local musicians and began to perform regularly throughout Belgium and France in local clubs, concerts and festivals where she continues to be invited back each year to perform.  She was selected to perform in Munich, Germany and Zurich, Switzerland as a member of the “Sister City Cultural Exchange Program.” She entertained for the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium to commemorate the inaugural flight and joint venture of Delta and Sabena airlines.

Mandy has continued to perform throughout Asia and Europe.  She has been “Artist in Residence” at 5-star hotels in Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, China and Hong Kong. She performed in Europe at the “April Jazz Festival” in Helsinki, Finland and “Festival International De Jazz” in St.Louis de Senegal, Africa. She also had a European release of her CD “With a Song in My Heart” and was a judge for “Sony Jazz Music Competition” in Riga, Latvia.

Mandy held music workshops in France, teaching jazz and gospel music with emphasis on interpretation, improvisation, stage performance and vocal range. She released her 2^nd CD, “Taking a Chance” In 2007.  Mandy was selected to perform at The American Embassy, Thailand, in commemoration of Black History Month in 2008.

Mandy has been featured as vocalist in the Annual Cote Ouest Big Band Music Festival in Cote, France and starred in the musical revue, “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” performed in Taipei, Taiwan. That same year she performed in the Musical, “Anything Goes” as “Reno Sweeney” at the National Palace Theatre in Taipei Taiwan.  She returned to Russia in 2016 and 2017 to perform a series of Big Band concerts and Pipe Organ Gospel recitals at the American Consulate.

In 2018 Mandy was honored with induction into the Cincinnati Jazz Hall of Fame.

Her videos can be viewed on YouTube and myspace.com/mandygainesjazzy and her CDs “Just a matter of Time” and “Faith Journey” can be purchased on I-Tunes, Amazon, and CDBaby.com.

Mandy continues to travel the world performing and recording while entertaining audiences along the way!

Repertoire

The 2026-27 Ohio Valley Symphony season is almost upon us. Mark your calendars now and get your season tickets so you can experience the magic of music at every single one.

We are celebrating America’s 250th Birthday on September 12 with a season opener of all-American music ranging from Leonard Bernstein to Aaron Copland and George Gershwin led by Maestro Peter Stafford Wilson. Our soloist, Maalik Glover, is performing the Concerto for Violin by African-American composer Florence Price whose magnificent early 20th century musical scores were found just a few years ago in an old trunk in an abandoned house about to be demolished!

Internationally noted conductor François López-Ferrer will be back on the Ariel Opera House stage as he leads the OVS through a Happy Halloween concert on October 31. Who knew Bela Bartok wrote a quirky piece titled Dances of Transylvania? Violinist Grace Park is featured on Ravel’s Tzigane and Sarasate’s fiendishly difficult Zigeunerweisen. Brahms’ glorious Symphony No. 1 finishes out the second half. What costume will you wear?

Maestro Steven Huang’s annual Christmas Show on December 5 is a perennial favorite of audiences young and old with carols and songs both new and familiar. Tickets sell out fast so be sure to get yours soon. December is also our annual Maestro for a Moment competition when community members vie for the chance to conduct the OVS in Sleigh Ride. Every dollar is a vote for your favorite candidate and helps support The Ohio Valley Symphony with your tax deductible donation.

On March 13 things get a bit brassy for the Bugler’s Holiday concert when the OVS will be joined by Dave Zeng performing Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto. Maestro Scott Woodard takes us to Ireland with Hamilton Harty’s Irish Symphony for a bit-of-the-green.

For Gershwin’s Greatest the stunning Michael Chertock is back showing us just how good he really is by conducting AND performing George Gershwin’s Concerto in F on April 17. Rounding out the year of celebrating America’s greatest, the OVS will also feature Gershwin’s perennial favorite An American in Paris and the music of jazz great Duke Ellington.

Every concert ticket includes a 6:45 p.m. Pre-concert Chat on the 3rd floor with the Maestro and soloist of the evening as well as a Post Concert Reception for you to meet the artists.  Subscribers can print the form below and mail to the Ariel Opera House or call the box office. Purchase your season subscription now so you won’t miss a single one!

Our 2026-27 Season Brochure will be available soon for download! 

In these times of uncertainty, concert dates and location may be subject to change. Please watch the website for the latest news.

The Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Cultural & Performing Arts Centre and The Ohio Valley Symphony are 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations, Federal Tax ID# 31-1273779

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.

[Transcript]
Lora Lynn Snow:  “Welcome to the historic Ariel Opera House in downtown Gallipolis, Ohio. The Ariel was built in 1895 by the Ariel Oddfellows lodge. It was a fairly typical 19th century Appalachian Opera House with retail space on the front sidewalk and the theatre portion in the back with a banquet room on the second floor and their lodge room on the third floor. Most towns had an opera house in the nineteenth century and they were built by the various lodges, Moose, Masons, Elks, Oddfellows, etc. and they shared a similar design. Retail space was on ground level to provide income, opera houses were behind or on second or third floors and their lodge room was on the top floor as they felt they were the upper class citizens of their community and they literally wanted people to look up to them. It also meant any secret parts of their rituals couldn’t be seen by the people on the street.

We call them theatres today, but in the nineteenth century, “theatres” were considered disreputable so they used the term “opera house.” Opera houses proliferated throughout the nineteenth century and almost every town had one. The Ariel was designed by the state architects of Packard and Yost who were responsible for many facilities throughout Ohio, including the Great Southern Theatre and connected hotel in Columbus, Ohio. Another of their designs, The Ohio Valley Bank also on Second Ave. in Gallipolis has been recently restored and occupied by Ohio Valley Bank, the original owner.

The Oddfellows lodge sold the Ariel a few years after it opened on Christmas Day in 1895 and it changed hands several more times until the Gallia Masonic Lodge bought it in 1919. Silent movies began to share the stage with live entertainment and then only movies remained until the doors closed for good in the mid 1960’s. TV sealed the fate of many historic theatres and they were lost to the wrecking ball.

I’m Lora Lynn Snow and I’m a professional musician. In 1987, I had a vision of starting a professional orchestra and a few days later found the abandoned Ariel. It was love at first sound! I could hear the spectacular acoustics and knew if would be the perfect home for The Ohio Valley Symphony. After a year and a half or planning and organizing, we obtained a long term lease and began physical work on the theatre only portion of the building. We encouraged the long time pigeon residents to move on and then began the cleanup of the remnants of their occupation. We found beautiful golden oak woodwork under many layers of paint, graceful plaster ornamentation and decorative woodwork in the piles of rubble which were carefully sifted through. Volunteers by the dozens showed up for months of clean up and initial restoration work and we had a tea to show it off. That raised community interest a bit, but it wasn’t until we had our first performance of The Ohio Valley Symphony on April 1, 1989 that people really sat up and took notice. They, too, were mesmerized by the sound of the instrument that is the Ariel and they began to respond in earnest.

A Grand Re-opening date was set for June 9, 1990 and the work began. The building was still strong and sound, but a new roof was installed, new wiring and plumbing and the real plaster repaired. The goal was to restore the Ariel with the look of the original while bringing it up to code. We had no interior photos of the Ariel, but serendipity was often at play during the process. We ordered the massive main stage curtain and had the seat fabric dyed to match. Later, in a room that had been sealed up in 1930, we pulled up some threadbare carpeting. Apparently during the installation, they folded under the excess instead of cutting it off and the colors on that portion were still brilliant AND the red background was an exact match for the fabric we had just ordered.

As the re-opening date drew near, work became more frantic and round the clock. The original ceiling stencil was discovered only a few weeks before June 9 and was re-created in an all-night dash by volunteers before the scaffolding came down in a beat-the-clock race against time. The seat installers were literally screwing in seats until 8:00 pm the night of the re-opening concert as the line to get in stretched down the long hall, out the door and down the street. The OVS sold out of their first upcoming season that very night.

The Ohio Valley Symphony, the only professional orchestra in the southeast Ohio River Valley region, has grown and developed over the years. We pull in musicians from seven states and Canada and have world class soloists join us in concerts. The OVS recently completed a project with folk singer Michael Johnathon resulting in Songs of Rural America that is being shown on public tv stations around the country. This was conducted by Cincinnati Pops Principal Arranger, Tim Berens, and you can hear his arrangement of “Simple Gifts” arranged especially for OVS playing in the background. You can view and hear both on our website at arieloperahouse.org

In 2005, longtime arts patron, Ann Carson Dater, purchased the entire 25,000 square foot facility and gave it to us as a permanent home for The Ohio Valley Symphony. Her incredible generosity has enabled us to expand our offerings and propel us into the future. In her honor, we renamed the facility the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre. She wanted a place for young children to have dance and music lessons and experience the thrill of performing before an audience. She often said to me, “If more people listened to symphonic music, the world would be a better place.” We agree and to that end, we facilitate the connection between artists of all kinds and students, both young and old, to be able to select a teacher at the Ariel Academy on our website. We also offer performances of all kinds and of all abilities, lectures, debates, book signings and conferences. We are available to rent for parties, weddings and commercial events.

The Ohio Valley Symphony has a six concert season with fall and spring concerts surrounding the annual Christmas Show the first Saturday in December. Our soloists have included Philadelphia Orchestra concert master, David Kim, jazz great Byron Stripling, pianist and Gershwin expert Richard Glazier, Broadway star Mark McVey and many, many more. Audience members come from far and wide to hear fine symphonic music expertly performed in a fabulous acoustic instrument, the Ariel Opera House.

The Ariel hosts an annual Merry TubaChristmas on the second Saturday in December which allows tuba and euphonium players from far and wide to gather together to perform traditional Christmas carols. The warm rich organ-like sound of the low brass instruments sounds especially wonderful in the Ariel’s spectacular acoustics.

We now have a Banquet Room seating 100 and a ballroom on the second floor. The former lodge room on third floor has been transformed into our Chamber Theatre seating 130 and we also have a Conference Room complete with state of the art Web-Ex conferencing equipment allowing connections around the world. From that little scrap of carpet we found back in 1990, restoration work has recently culminated with the completion of a long term project recreating the original carpet and laying that throughout the building. With the help of the League of Historic American Theatres we found a world renowned historic carpet expert who guided us through the textile analysis and recreation of the Axminster wool carpeting that is a historic reproduction of the original.

Visit our website at arieloperahouse.org and plan your visit to coincide with an Ohio Valley Symphony concert performed in an intimate hall with superb acoustics. Parking is nearby and plentiful, nearby restaurants and hotels and motels offer discounts for symphony ticket holders when visiting our ADA accessible facility. We guarantee you will leave here uplifted and ready to return.”