Special Guest Performers 2016-17
October 1-2, 2016 -
A John Williams Extravaganza: Featuring the Music of STAR WARS
Nick Palmer, Conductor
Nick Palmer has been widely recognized for his compelling performances and emotional connection to audiences and is regarded as one of the most talented symphonic and Pops conductors on the scene today.
Maestro Palmer — Music Director of North Charleston POPS! in South Carolina, the Lafayette Symphony in Indiana, the Evening Under the Stars Music Festival in Massachusetts, and the Dubuque Festival Orchestra in Iowa — has been called a “brilliant young music director” by Leonard Slatkin of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Nick was a recipient of the Helen M. Thompson Award from the League of American Orchestras as the nation’s most outstanding young music director. Nick is currently finishing his 18th and final season as Music Director of the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra in Kentucky.
Under Nick Palmer’s leadership the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra (OSO) has developed one of the nation’s leading education programs with over 20 different series for young people and adults. The OSO’s remarkably high artistic level has been widely praised: “The OSO, under the direction of Nicholas Palmer, showed why they have been getting rave reviews” (Cincinnati Post). The extensive tours and outreach of the OSO, with artists such as LeAnne Rimes, Dionne Warwick, Anne Murray, Mannheim Steamroller, Celtic Woman and Amy Grant as well as its many recordings have also brought orchestral music to countless numbers of first time listeners. The OSO has been profiled in Symphony Magazine and the Huffington Post.
Since 2007 – when Nick began as Music Director-the Lafayette Symphony has experienced increased ticket sales, dynamic and creative programming, a marked development in educational programs and regional concerts, and dramatic artistic growth. Dick Jaeger commented in the Lafayette Journal & Courier: “without trepidation this reviewer is ready to state that the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra and conductor are setting the bar higher and higher for other regional orchestras around the state and Midwest”.
Maestro Palmer has won rave reviews with the Detroit Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Boulder Philharmonic, Virginia Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Louisville Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, Salt Lake Symphony, Huntsville Symphony, Springfield (MA) Symphony , Greenville Symphony and other orchestras across the nation. He has also conducted over a dozen performances with the Jacksonville Symphony during the last several seasons, including regional concerts in St. Augustine, Orange Park and Daytona Beach.
Nick has also worked with many top Pops performers including Smokey Robinson, Neil Sedaka, Art Garfunkel, Clay Aiken, Al Hirt, Shirley Jones, Jeans and Classics, Ballroom with a Twist, Tony Desare and many others. The Boulder Daily Camera noted: “(Palmer) is intensely musical, communicates well and easily with the orchestra and manages to share the entire musical experience with the audience in a meaningful way.”
A favorite guest conductor in Europe, Mexico and South America, Palmer recently conducted the Europa Philharmonie at the Hardinsburg Castle near Berlin, toured with the Orchestra di San Remo for two weeks in Italy and led concerts with the Czech Radio Orchestra at the Prague and Nelahozeves Castles celebrating the music of George Gershwin. The German press hailed Palmer’s conducting as “a musical high point with world class flair” and Radio Suisse Romande in Switzerland noted Palmer’s: “great professionalism with unity and verve”. Palmer has also led the West Bohemia Symphony, National Orchestra of Bolivia, Sophia Symphony, Sinaloa (OSSLA) and Monterrey (UANL) Symphony in Mexico, Milano Classico Orchestra, Medellin (EAFIT) Symphony and Lausanne Symphony.
In addition to his appointments in Owensboro and Lafayette, Palmer has been the Music Director of the Altoona Symphony and the Dubuque Symphony as well as the Nashville Ballet and Heartland Ballet. As an Opera Conductor he has led productions with the Boston Summer Opera, Harvard University Opera, Goldovsky Opera Company, University of Kentucky Opera Theater, Chicago Light Opera Works, Jacksonville Opera, KY Opera/Owensboro Symphony and was Assistant Conductor of the American Opera Center at the Juilliard School.
A native of Hingham, Massachusetts, Palmer graduated cum laude from Harvard University and received his Masters and Doctoral degrees in Orchestral Conducting from the New England Conservatory of Music and the University of Iowa, respectively. He also has studied at the Juilliard School, Pierre Monteux Domaine School, Aspen Music School, the Festival at Sandpoint, and the Academia Chigiana in Italy, where he was a student of Franco Ferrara and Carlo Maria Giulini.Nick and Dorothy Palmer have four boys: Nicholas, Daniel, Alexander and Oliver and live on a farm outside of Owensboro, Kentucky.
Nick Palmer has been widely recognized for his compelling performances and emotional connection to audiences and is regarded as one of the most talented symphonic and Pops conductors on the scene today.
Maestro Palmer — Music Director of North Charleston POPS! in South Carolina, the Lafayette Symphony in Indiana, the Evening Under the Stars Music Festival in Massachusetts, and the Dubuque Festival Orchestra in Iowa — has been called a “brilliant young music director” by Leonard Slatkin of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Nick was a recipient of the Helen M. Thompson Award from the League of American Orchestras as the nation’s most outstanding young music director. Nick is currently finishing his 18th and final season as Music Director of the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra in Kentucky.
Under Nick Palmer’s leadership the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra (OSO) has developed one of the nation’s leading education programs with over 20 different series for young people and adults. The OSO’s remarkably high artistic level has been widely praised: “The OSO, under the direction of Nicholas Palmer, showed why they have been getting rave reviews” (Cincinnati Post). The extensive tours and outreach of the OSO, with artists such as LeAnne Rimes, Dionne Warwick, Anne Murray, Mannheim Steamroller, Celtic Woman and Amy Grant as well as its many recordings have also brought orchestral music to countless numbers of first time listeners. The OSO has been profiled in Symphony Magazine and the Huffington Post.
Since 2007 – when Nick began as Music Director-the Lafayette Symphony has experienced increased ticket sales, dynamic and creative programming, a marked development in educational programs and regional concerts, and dramatic artistic growth. Dick Jaeger commented in the Lafayette Journal & Courier: “without trepidation this reviewer is ready to state that the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra and conductor are setting the bar higher and higher for other regional orchestras around the state and Midwest”.
Maestro Palmer has won rave reviews with the Detroit Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Boulder Philharmonic, Virginia Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Louisville Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, Salt Lake Symphony, Huntsville Symphony, Springfield (MA) Symphony , Greenville Symphony and other orchestras across the nation. He has also conducted over a dozen performances with the Jacksonville Symphony during the last several seasons, including regional concerts in St. Augustine, Orange Park and Daytona Beach.
Nick has also worked with many top Pops performers including Smokey Robinson, Neil Sedaka, Art Garfunkel, Clay Aiken, Al Hirt, Shirley Jones, Jeans and Classics, Ballroom with a Twist, Tony Desare and many others. The Boulder Daily Camera noted: “(Palmer) is intensely musical, communicates well and easily with the orchestra and manages to share the entire musical experience with the audience in a meaningful way.”
A favorite guest conductor in Europe, Mexico and South America, Palmer recently conducted the Europa Philharmonie at the Hardinsburg Castle near Berlin, toured with the Orchestra di San Remo for two weeks in Italy and led concerts with the Czech Radio Orchestra at the Prague and Nelahozeves Castles celebrating the music of George Gershwin. The German press hailed Palmer’s conducting as “a musical high point with world class flair” and Radio Suisse Romande in Switzerland noted Palmer’s: “great professionalism with unity and verve”. Palmer has also led the West Bohemia Symphony, National Orchestra of Bolivia, Sophia Symphony, Sinaloa (OSSLA) and Monterrey (UANL) Symphony in Mexico, Milano Classico Orchestra, Medellin (EAFIT) Symphony and Lausanne Symphony.
In addition to his appointments in Owensboro and Lafayette, Palmer has been the Music Director of the Altoona Symphony and the Dubuque Symphony as well as the Nashville Ballet and Heartland Ballet. As an Opera Conductor he has led productions with the Boston Summer Opera, Harvard University Opera, Goldovsky Opera Company, University of Kentucky Opera Theater, Chicago Light Opera Works, Jacksonville Opera, KY Opera/Owensboro Symphony and was Assistant Conductor of the American Opera Center at the Juilliard School.
A native of Hingham, Massachusetts, Palmer graduated cum laude from Harvard University and received his Masters and Doctoral degrees in Orchestral Conducting from the New England Conservatory of Music and the University of Iowa, respectively. He also has studied at the Juilliard School, Pierre Monteux Domaine School, Aspen Music School, the Festival at Sandpoint, and the Academia Chigiana in Italy, where he was a student of Franco Ferrara and Carlo Maria Giulini.Nick and Dorothy Palmer have four boys: Nicholas, Daniel, Alexander and Oliver and live on a farm outside of Owensboro, Kentucky.
Billy Test, Piano
Pennsylvania native Billy Test began playing piano when he was seven years old. His piano playing draws on a wide variety of styles and influences. Beginning as a classical pianist, Test devoured tons of music, looking to enrich his playing. Following in the footsteps of other pianists like Bill Evans, Fred Hersch, and Richie Beirach, Test’s music shows strong influences of classical music while displaying roots in the history of jazz.
Pennsylvania native Billy Test began playing piano when he was seven years old. His piano playing draws on a wide variety of styles and influences. Beginning as a classical pianist, Test devoured tons of music, looking to enrich his playing. Following in the footsteps of other pianists like Bill Evans, Fred Hersch, and Richie Beirach, Test’s music shows strong influences of classical music while displaying roots in the history of jazz.
October 29, 2016 - King of Romance
Soovin Kim, Voilin
Soovin Kim is an exciting player who has built on the early successes of his prize-winning years to emerge as a mature and communicative artist. After winning first prize at the Niccolò Paganini International Competition, Mr. Kim was recipient of the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Henryk Szeryng Foundation Career Award. Today he enjoys a broad musical career, regularly performing repertoire such as Bach sonatas and Paganini caprices for solo violin, Mozart and Vivaldi concerti without conductor, big Romantic concerti, sonatas for violin and piano by Beethoven, Brahms, and Ives, string quartets, and new world-premiere works almost every season.
In recent seasons he has been acclaimed for his “superb…impassioned” (Berkshire Review) performance of Alban Berg’s Chamber Concerto at the Bard Festival with the American Symphony Orchestra and a “sassy, throaty” (Philadelphia Inquirer) rendition of Kurt Weill’s concerto with the Curtis Chamber Orchestra. Other unusual concerto collaborations included Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto with conductor Maestro Myung-Whun Chung, the same Mendelssohn concerto with the Dallas Symphony and music director Jaap van Zweden, and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in Carnegie Hall. He has performed in past seasons with the Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Stuttgart Radio Symphony, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, and the Seoul Philharmonic and Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra with Maestro Chung.
Soovin Kim spends two months each year as 1st violinist of the Johannes String Quartet. Among their special projects was a two-season tour with the famed and now-retired Guarneri String Quartet in an unusual program including world-premieres of quartets by Esa-Pekka Salonen and Derek Bermel, and an octet by William Bolcom. Mr. Kim maintains a close relationship with the famed Marlboro Festival where he regularly spends his summers. He is well-known in Korea as a member of MIK, his ground-breaking piano quartet ensemble.
Soovin Kim’s latest solo CD, Gypsy, was released in September 2010. It was his third collaboration between American label Azica Records and Korea-based Stomp/EMI. They previously released a French album of Fauré and Chausson with pianist Jeremy Denk and the Jupiter Quartet in 2008, and Paganini's demanding 24 Caprices for solo violin in February 2006 was named Classic FM magazine’s Instrumental Disc of the Month (“he emerges thrillingly triumphant…a thrilling debut disc.”). He made his first solo recording with Jeremy Denk for Koch-Discover in duo works by Schubert, Bartók, and Strauss. Mr. Kim also has numerous chamber music recordings including a live performance from the Marlboro Festival of Beethoven’s Archduke piano trio with pianist Mitsuko Uchida and the late cellist David Soyer.
Soovin Kim founded the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont in 2009. With its focused programming and exceptional artists the festival is “increasing its stature as one of this country’s summer chamber music meccas (Rutland Herald).” Mr. Kim and the Lake Champlain festival helped to create the ONE Strings program in Burlington which makes violin lessons part of the regular curriculum for 4th and 5th graders. Mr. Kim was given an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Vermont in 2015 in recognition of his contributions to the community.
Soovin Kim dedicates much of his time to his passion for teaching. He has been on the faculties of Stony Brook University and the Peabody Institute, and now he teaches exclusively at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Mr. Kim studied when he was younger at the Cleveland Institute of Music with David Cerone and Donald Weilerstein, and graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music with Victor Danchenko and Jaime Laredo.
Soovin Kim is an exciting player who has built on the early successes of his prize-winning years to emerge as a mature and communicative artist. After winning first prize at the Niccolò Paganini International Competition, Mr. Kim was recipient of the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Henryk Szeryng Foundation Career Award. Today he enjoys a broad musical career, regularly performing repertoire such as Bach sonatas and Paganini caprices for solo violin, Mozart and Vivaldi concerti without conductor, big Romantic concerti, sonatas for violin and piano by Beethoven, Brahms, and Ives, string quartets, and new world-premiere works almost every season.
In recent seasons he has been acclaimed for his “superb…impassioned” (Berkshire Review) performance of Alban Berg’s Chamber Concerto at the Bard Festival with the American Symphony Orchestra and a “sassy, throaty” (Philadelphia Inquirer) rendition of Kurt Weill’s concerto with the Curtis Chamber Orchestra. Other unusual concerto collaborations included Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto with conductor Maestro Myung-Whun Chung, the same Mendelssohn concerto with the Dallas Symphony and music director Jaap van Zweden, and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in Carnegie Hall. He has performed in past seasons with the Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Stuttgart Radio Symphony, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, and the Seoul Philharmonic and Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra with Maestro Chung.
Soovin Kim spends two months each year as 1st violinist of the Johannes String Quartet. Among their special projects was a two-season tour with the famed and now-retired Guarneri String Quartet in an unusual program including world-premieres of quartets by Esa-Pekka Salonen and Derek Bermel, and an octet by William Bolcom. Mr. Kim maintains a close relationship with the famed Marlboro Festival where he regularly spends his summers. He is well-known in Korea as a member of MIK, his ground-breaking piano quartet ensemble.
Soovin Kim’s latest solo CD, Gypsy, was released in September 2010. It was his third collaboration between American label Azica Records and Korea-based Stomp/EMI. They previously released a French album of Fauré and Chausson with pianist Jeremy Denk and the Jupiter Quartet in 2008, and Paganini's demanding 24 Caprices for solo violin in February 2006 was named Classic FM magazine’s Instrumental Disc of the Month (“he emerges thrillingly triumphant…a thrilling debut disc.”). He made his first solo recording with Jeremy Denk for Koch-Discover in duo works by Schubert, Bartók, and Strauss. Mr. Kim also has numerous chamber music recordings including a live performance from the Marlboro Festival of Beethoven’s Archduke piano trio with pianist Mitsuko Uchida and the late cellist David Soyer.
Soovin Kim founded the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont in 2009. With its focused programming and exceptional artists the festival is “increasing its stature as one of this country’s summer chamber music meccas (Rutland Herald).” Mr. Kim and the Lake Champlain festival helped to create the ONE Strings program in Burlington which makes violin lessons part of the regular curriculum for 4th and 5th graders. Mr. Kim was given an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Vermont in 2015 in recognition of his contributions to the community.
Soovin Kim dedicates much of his time to his passion for teaching. He has been on the faculties of Stony Brook University and the Peabody Institute, and now he teaches exclusively at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Mr. Kim studied when he was younger at the Cleveland Institute of Music with David Cerone and Donald Weilerstein, and graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music with Victor Danchenko and Jaime Laredo.
November 19, 2016 - Flight of Fancy
Jared Angle, Dance Soloist
Jared Angle was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania where he began his early dance training at age six at the Allegheny Ballet Academy. He entered the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet, in the fall of 1996. In 1997, Mr. Angle received the Rudolf Nureyev Scholarship to continue his training at SAB for the 1997-1998 school year. Mr. Angle became an apprentice with New York City Ballet in March 1998 and joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in July 1998. He was promoted to the rank of soloist in February 2001. On November 11, 2005, Mr. Angle was promoted to principal dancer following a performance during a Company visit to Denmark for the reopening of the Tivoli Concert Hall.
Jared Angle was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania where he began his early dance training at age six at the Allegheny Ballet Academy. He entered the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet, in the fall of 1996. In 1997, Mr. Angle received the Rudolf Nureyev Scholarship to continue his training at SAB for the 1997-1998 school year. Mr. Angle became an apprentice with New York City Ballet in March 1998 and joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in July 1998. He was promoted to the rank of soloist in February 2001. On November 11, 2005, Mr. Angle was promoted to principal dancer following a performance during a Company visit to Denmark for the reopening of the Tivoli Concert Hall.
December 3, 2016 - Home for the Holidays
