The Ohio Valley Symphony Presents “The Voices” – March 9th

You will be enchanted by this bass-baritone and soprano duet as they bring classical and broadway numbers to the Ariel Theatre stage along with the one and only Ohio Valley Symphony. Read more for Bio & Full Song List.

OVS brings sounds of Dixie to Point Pleasant

It’ll be a hot time in the old town as the Ohio Valley Symphony kicks off its 23rd season with a night showcasing America’s home-grown music.

The orchestra welcomes the DUKES of Dixieland back to the Ohio Valley on Oct. 6 for an all-new program ranging from traditional jazz to a 21st-century mixture of pop, gospel, country and authentic New Orleans sounds. Ray Fowler, the orchestra’s Music Director, conducts the 8 p.m. performance in Point Pleasant Junior/Senior High School’s Wedge Auditorium.

The program’s sponsor is Ohio Valley Bancorp, a long-time OVS supporter.

It’s a return visit for the DUKES, the country’s oldest continuing Dixieland jazz band. They first joined southeast Ohio’s only professional orchestra in July for a hot night in Gallipolis City Park.

It won’t be 100 degrees at the concert this time, but the DUKES will bring plenty of their own heat. Bright and brassy or smooth and dark as cane syrup, the group brings a time-honored authenticity to all of the hits of Dixieland music.

Since 1975 in Chicago’s Grant Park, the DUKES have collaborated with great orchestras, including the Boston and Cincinnati Pops, with sizzling arrangements that play off the two traditions’ strengths. It’s a formula that has worked for players and audiences alike. The DUKES have sold out venues including the Hollywood Bowl, the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian.

Audiences can expect to hear everything from rags to Gospel classics like “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” to more modern favorites, including Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.” With a band from New Orleans, there will be some sounds of Mardi Gras in the air, too.

This marks the fifth year the OVS has performed in Point Pleasant, including a concert that helped dedicate the hall’s completion. The annual Point Pleasant concert is a chance for the orchestra to find new fans on the other side of the Ohio River. “We can’t expect everyone to come to us all the time,” said Lora Snow, the orchestra’s founder and executive director.

The OVS, based at the historic Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre in downtown Gallipolis, has built a reputation for offering its audiences a lineup of world-class guest artists performing all varieties of music, ranging from R&B to classical mainstays to holiday favorites. That variety is key both to the OVS’s mission and its more than two decades of success, said Snow.

“The important thing is that the music be good,” she said, “and good music comes in all kinds of packages. We show people that orchestras can be very versatile.”

As part of the Ohio Valley Symphony’s mission to bring live, professional, orchestral music to the region and to instill a love of music — especially in children, the public is encouraged to attend OVS rehearsals for free at 7–10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5, and 1–4 p.m. Oct. 6 at Wedge Auditorium. Open rehearsals are a great way to grow familiar with symphonic music, and they offer a unique behind-the-scenes glimpse at the preparation of an orchestral performance.

Single tickets to the Ohio Valley Symphony’s “Dukes of Dixieland” cost $22, $20 (senior) and $10 (student). Subscriptions to all five 2012-13 OVS concerts, including the always popular Christmas concert, are available for $100, $90 (senior) and $50 (student). Family subscriptions for two adults and children are $275.

Single-ticket buyers who decide they want to lock in their seats will be able to buy pro-rated subscriptions for the four remaining OVS performances at the Oct. 6 concert.

Tickets and more information are available at the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre box office, 428 Second Ave., Gallipolis; by phone, (740) 446-2787 (ARTS); and through the OVS Web site, www.ohiovalleysymphony.org.

Funding for the Ohio Valley Symphony is provided in part by the Ann Carson Dater Endowment. Further support is provided through the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically, with funding by the National Endowment for the Arts.

THE CHRISTMAS SHOW, 2012

Stores are decking their halls even earlier every year, but the holiday season doesn’t start in October – or even at Thanksgiving. It starts Dec. 1 with The Ohio Valley Symphony’s annual “Christmas Show.”

The program, now a southeast Ohio tradition, is at 8 p.m. in the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre in downtown Gallipolis. Locally-based Holzer Health System is the long time sponsor of the evening’s festivities

OVS Music Director Ray Fowler has again assembled a holiday-sized spread of musical cheer for the concert. He and the orchestra will offer a menu of old favorites — both carols and winter holiday songs – and of some surprises that audience members will be adding to their list of favorites. Among the traditional carols will be arrangements including “Away in a Manger” and “What Child is This?”

Songs from America’s holiday traditions will include “Jingle Bells,” “Sleigh Ride” and “Winter Wonderland.” Look forward as well, to an American flavor, thanks to William Bergsma’s “Carol for Twelfth Night,” Lucas Richman’s “Reindeer Variations” – one for each of Santa’s four-legged helpers – and “A Quint of Carols” by Ohio native Don Waxman. Classical composers Gustav Holst and Sergei Prokofiev (another sleigh ride, this time in Russia) also will be represented.

As part of The Ohio Valley Symphony’s mission to bring live, professional, orchestral music to the region and to instill a love of music — especially in children – the public is encouraged to attend OVS rehearsals for free at 7-10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30, and 1-4 p.m. Dec. 1 at the Ariel Theatre. Open rehearsals are a great way for young and old alike to grow familiar with symphonic music, and they offer a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse at the preparation of an orchestral performance.

Concert-goers have another unique opportunity to make a personal connection with the music, too. Thomas Consolo, OVS Assistant Conductor and program annotator, offers a free pre-concert chat in the third-floor Ariel Chamber Theatre, just upstairs from the concert site. The casual get-together will put a more personal face on the night’s music and answer questions about the program, the OVS or the orchestral experience in general. The talk begins at 7:15 p.m. Dec. 1.

Single tickets to “The Christmas Show” with The Ohio Valley Symphony cost $24, $22 (senior) and $12 (student). Tickets and more information are available at the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre box office, 428 Second Ave., Gallipolis; by phone, (740) 446-2787 (ARTS); and through the OVS web site, www.ohiovalleysymphony.org.

Funding for The Ohio Valley Symphony is provided in part 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.

Ohio Valley Symphony THE AMAZING CELLO with Efe Baltacigil

Turkish cellist Efe Baltacigil was acclaimed by audiences and critics alike when he and pianist Emanuel Ax performed Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No.1 at a Philadelphia Orchestra concert with only 10 minutes of rehearsal.

The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: “Baltacigil is a highly individualized solo artist. His gorgeous sound, strong personality, and expressive depth suggest an artist about to have a major career.” Mr. Baltacigil won the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, The Peter Jay Sharp Prize, and the Washington Performing Arts Society Prize.

Congratulations to 2013’s Maestro for a Moment!

Ellen Garling was given the honor of being Maestro for a Moment as a result of the 2012-2013 season’s fundraiser, congratulations, and thank you for your support!

Thanks also goes to our other two fabulous candidates, Patrick O’Donnell and John Holland!

And of course to everyone who donated funds for their chosen candidates!

2012 Hobgoblin Halloween Show

The Ohio Valley Symphony’s Musical Treat
Saturday, November 3, 2012

Some of the ghosts and goblins that will haunt the Ohio Valley on Halloween won’t go home right away. They’ll hide in the dark corners of the Ariel Theatre, waiting for one more night of fun with The Ohio Valley Symphony.

The orchestra’s members — including music director Ray Fowler on the podium — trade their tails and bow ties for whimsical or ghoulish costumes as they offer concert-goers a full plate of musical tricks and treats. This year’s musical mayhem begins at 8 p.m. November 3 at the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre in downtown Gallipolis.

It’s all part of the OVS philosophy of making orchestral music easy to love, according to the orchestra’s executive director, Lora Lynn Snow. “It gives the audience a chance to see all the people up there on stage performing live music and it gives us a chance to show off our individual personalities.”

The eclectic musical menu serves up equal measures of audience favorites from the concert hall and the movie theater. Centerpiece to the program is the suite from Igor Stravinsky’s breakout ballet, The Firebird. Full of first-ever musical effects, it retells the old Russian tale of a magical creature who helps a young prince defeat an evil sorcerer to win the princess he loves. The suite has been an audience favorite since its first performance.

Also from the classical world, Fowler and the OVS offer Johann Strauss’ sparkling Overture to Die Fledermaus (The Bat), the Infernal Galop — better known as the Can-can — from Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld and an excerpt of American composer Howard Hanson’s Symphony No. 2, the Romantic, used in the sci-fi horror classic Alien. The concert’s namesake piece, “Hobgoblin,” comes from the Symphonic Sketches by the pioneering American composer George Chadwick.

The rest of the program celebrates the American tradition of spooky movies with suites from Jaws, the film that kept America out of the water, and Harry Potter, both written by the dean of American film music, John Williams. And since magic isn’t all scary, there’s a take on “Witchcraft,” the Cy Coleman standard from 1957.

As part of the Ohio Valley Symphony’s mission to bring live, professional, orchestral music to the region and to instill a love of music — especially in children, the public is encouraged to attend OVS rehearsals for free at 7–10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2, and 1–4 p.m. Nov. 3 at the Ariel. Open rehearsals are a great way to grow familiar with symphonic music, and they offer a unique behind-the-scenes glimpse at the preparation of an orchestral performance.
Single tickets to the Ohio Valley Symphony’s HOBGOBLIN cost $22, $20 (senior) and $10 (student). Tickets and more information are available at the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre box office, 428 Second Ave., Gallipolis; by phone, (740) 446-2787 (ARTS); and through the Ariel website www.arieltheatre.org.

Funding for The Ohio Valley Symphony is provided in part by the Ann Carson Dater Endowment. Further support is provided through the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically, with funding by the National Endowment for the Arts.