You asked for him and he’s back! Maestro Keitaro Harada returns to the podium to lead The Ohio Valley Symphony in The Fabulous Flute with soloist Lindsey Goodman on Saturday, October 26 at 7:30 pm. The historic Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre is hosting an evening celebrating the old and the new with music spanning over 230 years (in a building 124 years old).
Conductor Keitaro Harada maintains a growing, international presence throughout North America, Asia, Mexico, and Europe. Recently named Music & Artistic Director Designate of Savannah Philharmonic, he will conduct the 2019-20 opening and closing concerts before his inaugural season in 2020-21. Harada’s broad scope of musical interest in symphonic, opera, chamber works, pops, film scores, ballet, educational, outreach, and multi-disciplinary projects leads to diverse and eclectic programs.
Goodman, OVS’s own piccolo and flutist, will perform an Ohio premiere of Nancy Galbraith’s Concert for Flute written especially for her. It’s both lyrical and energetic and shows off Lindsey’s virtuosic talents. The composer, Nancy Galbraith, is known worldwide for her compositions for instrumental and choral ensembles which have been performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony and the New York Philharmonic. Goodman will be offering a masterclass on Saturday morning at 10:30 am open to flutists of all ages which is free and open to the public.
Independent Streams for percussion and strings is another Ohio premiere – written by the OVS’s principal percussionist Roger Braun Braun drew from the music of Ghana and created this piece by combining streams of their infections songs with the interlocking rhythms of drums, bells and rattles.
Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 (the Haffner, named for the mayor of Saltzburg) which received its first performance in 1783 and de Falla’s much loved Three Cornered Hat, commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev (famous for his Ballets Russes) round out the program.
The OVS is devoted to bringing great music played by great artists to the Ohio Valley – and making orchestral music easy to love. The doors are open and the public is welcome to attend OVS rehearsals for free at 7-10 p.m. on Fridays and 1-4 p.m. on Saturdays on concert weekends. Open rehearsals are a wonderful way for young and old alike to listen to live symphonic music when schedules and timing do not allow them to attend concerts. They also offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what goes into preparing an orchestral performance.
Concertgoers — new or veteran — have another chance to learn more about the music with a free pre-concert chat in the third-floor Ariel Chamber Theatre, the pre-concert talks are interactive and informal and begin at 6:45 p.m.
Tickets for The Ohio Valley Symphony’s concerts are $24 for adults, $22 seniors and $12 for students and include the pre-concert chat at 6:45 pm, the 7:30 pm concert and the reception to meet the artists which immediately follows the concert. Tickets are available on the website at arieloperahouse.org or ohiovalleysymphony.org or at the box office. Funding for The Ohio Valley Symphony is provided in part by the Ann Carson Dater Endowment. The Ariel Opera House is located at 426 Second Ave. in downtown Gallipolis, Ohio and is an ADA accessible facility.