J. Mark McVey, October 6, 2007

J. Mark McVey

Ohio Valley Symphony bound for Broadway in season opener There’s nothing like autumn in New York, but there’s no need to wait in an airport line, drive for hours or negotiate cabs and subways. Let the Ohio Valley Symphony take you to the Great White Way for “Broadway and Beyond,” opening concert of the orchestra’s 18th season.

Broadway star Mark McVey joins the OVS — southeast Ohio’s only professional orchestra — at 8 p.m. Oct. 6 on the stage of the historic Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre in downtown Gallipolis. The Huntington, W.Va., native joins the orchestra, under music director Ray Fowler, for a tribute to America’s own music. He will perform songs by some of the stage’s greatest composers, from Irving Berlin to Andrew Lloyd Webber and from Leonard Bernstein to Richard Rodgers. Audiences will leave the Ariel humming such classics as “All the Things You Are,” “Anything Goes,” “Music of the Night,” “One,” “Somethings Coming,” and “The Way We Were.”

Mark McVey made his Broadway debut as Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables” — after having won the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Actor while on tour with the show. He has sung the stirring role nearly 3,000 times, and he was the first American to perform it in London’s West End. McVey has appeared in nationally-televised performances with the Boston Pops and the National Symphony, under Marvin Hamlisch, in a Christmas special for U.S. troops overseas.

McVey has released three CDs, “Broadway and Beyond,” “If You Really Knew Me,” his crossover into the adult contemporary world, and the inspirational “One Among Few.”

After the concert, come to the Dater Centre’s ballroom for a reception, featuring dancing accompanied by live music. Have two left feet? Dr. Joe Li offers a beginner lesson in ballroom dancing from 7-7:30 p.m. Admission to both is included with the price of an OVS concert ticket.

McVey will be offering a Masterclass 10-11 am the day of the concert on the Ariel stage. Tickets are $5 for students and $7 for adults. McVey will be discussing vocal techniques, working in musicals, the business aspects of working on Broadway, etc.

The Morris & Dorothy Haskins Theatre of the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre is at 426 Second Ave. in Gallipolis, Ohio. Tickets for “Broadway and Beyond” cost $25 for adults and $23 for seniors and are available at www.ohiovalleysymphony.org or by calling the theatre’s box office at (740)446-ARTS (2787). The box office is open Tuesdays through Fridays 9 am to 4 pm and 90 minutes prior to the show.

Funding for the symphony is provided by The Ann Carson Dater Endowment.

The OVS is also supported by the Ohio Arts Council. The Ohio Arts Council is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.

Graceful Ghosts, November 3, 2007

The Ohio Valley Symphony, Nov. 3, 2007

Ghosties, goblins and witches are all part of the brew when The Ohio Valley Symphony presents “Graceful Ghosts” Saturday, November 3 at 8 pm. The Morris & Dorothy Haskins Theatre will host a variety of spectres as the costumed musicians take the stage at the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre at 426 Second Ave. in Gallipolis, Ohio. Music Director, Ray Fowler, promises you an evening of hauntingly beautiful and ghoulishly familiar music that will stir your emotions and fire your imagination.

“Graceful Ghosts,” is a program of music that will send more shivers down your spine than a chilly November night. Venture onto Bald Mountain to sneak a peek at a witches’ sabbath in Modest Mussorgsky’s classic tone painting, so real that Walt Disney chose it for the original “Fantasia.” Alfred Hitchcock would smile at his TV theme song, Funeral March of a Marionette by Charles Gounod. The program also includes excerpts from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in their spectacular orchestrations by Maurice Ravel. The percussion section is featured in the title selection, Graceful Ghosts.

At the end of the evening the 2007 Maestro for a Moment will be “unmasked” and escorted to the stage to conduct John Phillip Sousa’s Stars & Stripes Forever. Campaigning for the honor are William Beegle and Dr. Nicholas Economides. The annual event is a good natured competition to see who can raise the most funds to help support the orchestra throughout the year. Every dollar is a vote for your favorite and patrons are urged to vote early and vote often.

Funding for the symphony is also provided by Holzer Medical Center and The Ann Carson Dater Endowment as well as a grant from the Ohio Arts Council. The Ohio Arts Council is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.

OVS Pops Program Kicks off Holiday Season, November 25, 2007

The elves of the Ohio Valley Symphony are ready to deck the hall — in the historic Morris & Dorothy Haskins Theatre of The Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre in downtown Gallipolis, Ohio — with the sounds of the holiday season. Join the orchestra, under the direction of Music Director Maestro Ray Fowler, at 8 p.m. Saturday, December 1, for a program of traditional and familiar Christmas songs.

The evening starts with a grand flourish as the brass section of the orchestra ring in the season with Hark, the Herald Angels Sing and Joy to the World. Antiphonal brass quartets will perform Canzon Septimi Toni by Gabrieli. Selections by Corelli and Bizet provide a classic touch as well as Respighi’s hauntingly beautiful Adoration of the Magi.

Seasonal favorites such as O Tannenbaum and The First Noel are offered up in arrangements by the well loved pops arranger Carmen Dragon. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is the evocative tune sung by Judy Garland in “Meet Me in St. Louis.” The brass are featured again inA Canadian Brass Christmas. The program is rounded out with Winter Wonderland and I’ll Be Home for Christmas.

For the child in all of us, the OVS will perform selections from the popular movie “The Polar Express.” No pops program would becomplete without the crack of a whip as the orchestra dashes out Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride.

The Ohio Valley Symphony’s “Christmas Show” is the perfect way to set your mood for the holiday season. Enjoy the ambiance of our Victorian opera house with the beautiful holiday decor tastefully designed and displayed by Michael Brown.

Funding for the symphony is provided by Holzer Clinic and The Ann Carson Dater Endowment as well as by a grant from the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.

The public is encouraged to attend rehearsals for free on Friday, Nov. 30, from 7-10 p.m. and on Saturday, Dec. 1 from 1-4 p.m. OVS Saturday dress rehearsals are an excellent way to introduce young children to symphonic music.

Tickets for the 8 p.m. concert are $22, $20 for seniors and $10 for students, and are available at the Ariel Dater Hall box office at 428 Second Ave. For more information call (740) 446-2787 (ARTS).

Lori Sims, March 29, 2008

Ohio Valley Symphony Pulls at the Heartstrings

Lori Sims, Piano

LORI SIMS, piano
Soloist for the Rachmaninov is Lori Sims, an internationally-known pianist who has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and China. Now the John T. Bernhard Professor of Music at Western Michigan University, Sims is a graduate of the Yale School of Music, where she was named most outstanding graduating student. Her 2000 debut at New York’s Alice Tully Hall earned a rave review from the New York Times.

As presidential hopefuls vie for support in both Russia and the United States this spring, concert-goers in both countries can agree on two perennial winners: Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky.

The Ohio Valley Symphony offers a program of masterpieces by the two musical giants that have tugged at the heartstrings of generations of
audiences. The March 29 performance of “The Romantics” is at 8:00 p.m. at the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre in downtown Gallipolis. OVS Music Director Ray Fowler conducts.

Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, known as the Pathètique, scales the depths and heights of human experience — painted in the elegant lilt of a waltz, a sparkling march, and a despondent finale. A parade of beautiful and beloved melodies mark what turned out to be Tchaikovsky’s final work.

By the time Sergei Rachmaninov moved to the United States to avoid the chaos following the 1917 Russian Revolution, he already was one of the world’s most famous composers and piano virtuosos. The Piano Concerto No. 2 was an immediate hit at the turn of the last century and cemented Rachmaninov’s reputation. It has remained an audience favorite, thanks to ravishing melodies and harmonies that have even inspired generations of U.S. popular performers from Frank Sinatra to Celine Dion.

FREE DANCE CLASS
Audience members will be treated to a reception immediately after the concert in the second floor banquet hall. There will be dancing to live music by Gene France in the second-floor ballroom. Don’t know how to dance? You can warm up your feet before the performance with a free dance class from 7-7:30 p.m led by Ballroom Dance Instructor Gerald Powell. Admission is with your OVS ticket.

TICKETS
Tickets to “The Romantics” are available through the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre at 426 Second Ave. in Gallipolis Ohio. Call (740) 446-ARTS (2787). Prices are $22, $20 for seniors and $10 for students.

OPEN REHEARSALS
The public is also encouraged to attend OVS rehearsals for free at 7-10 p.m. Friday, March 28, and 1-4 p.m. Saturday. Open rehearsals are an excellent way for new audiences to grow comfortable with symphonic music.

SPONSORSHIP
Corporate sponsor for “The Romantics” is the Gallia County Medical Society. Funding for the Ohio Valley Symphony is provided by the Ann Carson Dater Endowment. Further support is provided by the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.

Spring Finale, May 3, 2008

Ohio Valley Symphony Pulls at the Heartstrings

Lori Sims, Piano

LORI SIMS, piano
Soloist for the Rachmaninov is Lori Sims, an internationally-known pianist who has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and China. Now the John T. Bernhard Professor of Music at Western Michigan University, Sims is a graduate of the Yale School of Music, where she was named most outstanding graduating student. Her 2000 debut at New York’s Alice Tully Hall earned a rave review from the New York Times.

As presidential hopefuls vie for support in both Russia and the United States this spring, concert-goers in both countries can agree on two perennial winners: Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky.

The Ohio Valley Symphony offers a program of masterpieces by the two musical giants that have tugged at the heartstrings of generations of
audiences. The March 29 performance of “The Romantics” is at 8:00 p.m. at the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre in downtown Gallipolis. OVS Music Director Ray Fowler conducts.

Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, known as the Pathètique, scales the depths and heights of human experience — painted in the elegant lilt of a waltz, a sparkling march, and a despondent finale. A parade of beautiful and beloved melodies mark what turned out to be Tchaikovsky’s final work.

By the time Sergei Rachmaninov moved to the United States to avoid the chaos following the 1917 Russian Revolution, he already was one of the world’s most famous composers and piano virtuosos. The Piano Concerto No. 2 was an immediate hit at the turn of the last century and cemented Rachmaninov’s reputation. It has remained an audience favorite, thanks to ravishing melodies and harmonies that have even inspired generations of U.S. popular performers from Frank Sinatra to Celine Dion.

FREE DANCE CLASS
Audience members will be treated to a reception immediately after the concert in the second floor banquet hall. There will be dancing to live music by Gene France in the second-floor ballroom. Don’t know how to dance? You can warm up your feet before the performance with a free dance class from 7-7:30 p.m led by Ballroom Dance Instructor Gerald Powell. Admission is with your OVS ticket.

TICKETS
Tickets to “The Romantics” are available through the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre at 426 Second Ave. in Gallipolis Ohio. Call (740) 446-ARTS (2787). Prices are $22, $20 for seniors and $10 for students.

OPEN REHEARSALS
The public is also encouraged to attend OVS rehearsals for free at 7-10 p.m. Friday, March 28, and 1-4 p.m. Saturday. Open rehearsals are an excellent way for new audiences to grow comfortable with symphonic music.

SPONSORSHIP
Corporate sponsor for “The Romantics” is the Gallia County Medical Society. Funding for the Ohio Valley Symphony is provided by the Ann Carson Dater Endowment. Further support is provided by the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.

Press Release: 2007-08 OVS Season

OHIO VALLEY SYMPHONY

2007-08 SEASON

From Baroque to Broadway and from goblins to Christmas cheer, join the Ohio Valley Symphony for the 2007-08 subscription season. The 18th season of southeast Ohio’s only professional orchestra lights the stage of the historic Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre in downtown Gallipolis for five programs — all under the direction of music director Ray Fowler — that will stir your emotions and fire your imagination. All concerts take place on Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. in the Morris & Dorothy Haskins Theatre of the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre at 426 Second Avenue in Gallipolis, Ohio.

You’ll hear young and exciting guest artists ranging from Broadway’s Mark McVey to award-winning Canadian-Korean ’cellist Soo Bae and pianist Lori Sims. They’ll bring to life beloved, familiar music by favorite composers from the 17th through the late 20th century.

Mark McVey joins the OVS on Oct. 6 for “Broadway and Beyond,” a season-opening tribute to America’s own music: Broadway. He and the orchestra will perform songs by some of the stage’s greatest composers in works from the Great White Way’s Golden Age and its current heyday.

From Irving Berlin to Andrew Lloyd Webber, from Leonard Bernstein to Richard Rodgers, audiences will leave the Ariel humming such classics as “All the Things You Are,” “Anything Goes,” “Music o the Night,” “One,” “Somethings Coming,” and “The Way We Were.”

Let your Halloween last — at least until Nov. 3, when the OVS offers a night of “Ghostly Hallows,” music that will send more shivers down your spine than a chilly November night. Venture onto Bald Mountain to sneak a peek at a witches’ sabbath in Modest Mussorgsky’s classic tone painting, so real that Walt Disney chose it for the original “Fantasia.” Alfred Hitchcock would smile at his TV theme song, “Funeral March of a Marionette” by Charles Gounod. The program also includes excerpts from Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” in their spectacular orchestrations by Maurice Ravel.

Then get an early start on happier holidays with “A Christmas Show” on Dec. 1. Brass music from the late 1600s by Giovanni Gabrieli and the “Farandole,” including the “March of the Kings,” by Georges Bizet start the program with a classic touch. Then, the OVS warms you up with a variety of favorite modern holiday carols and songs.

In Spring, it’s not just a young man’s thoughts that turn to romance. Join the OVS and pianist Lori Sims on March 29, 2008, for “The Romantics,” a program of titans of classical music. Triumph meets tragedy in two pillars of symphonic music as Sims solos in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Fowler leads the orchestra through Tchaikovsky’s final masterpiece, the Symphony No. 6, “Pathetique.”

Soo Bae helps the OVS celebrate the end of the season May 3, 2008, performing Robert Schumann’s soulful Concerto for Cello and Orchestra. Fowler then brings the year to a sunny, rousing end with Johannes Brahms’ massive Symphony No. 2.

Season tickets are $100 and Senior Citizens are $90. Student tickets are $50 or the entire family can purchase a season ticket for $275. Select balcony tickets with limited leg room are available for $50. Call 740-446-ARTS (2787) for more information.