The Mansfield Symphony Orchestra will present its second concert of the 2018-2019 OhioHealth Symphony Series, “Symphony Spooktacular” on Sunday, October 28 at 3:00 PM at the Renaissance Theatre in Mansfield, Ohio Under the direction of guest conductor Katherine Kilburn, the event will feature a program of classic and popular “spooky” music played by the orchestra. 2018 vocal competition winner, Ellie Nickoli, will be the guest soloist.
The program includes both classical repertoire and film music, including John Williams’ Highlights from Jurassic Park and the Star Wars Medley, Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre, Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” from Die Götterdämmerung, and music from Little Shop of Horrors, among many others. A youth choral ensemble composed of students from the Renaissance Youth Opera Theatre and Mansfield Youth Theatre will perform on the concert.
Guest conductor Katherine Kilburn was the recipient of the 2008 Thelma A. Robinson Conducting Award, and has been Assistant Conductor of the National Repertory Orchestra, the El Paso Opera, the Hot Springs Music Festival, the Bowling Green State University Philharmonia, and the St. Louis Symphony Chorus, as well as Conductor of the Interlochen Arts Academy Wind Ensemble, Music Director and Conductor of the Greater New Haven Youth and Chamber Orchestras, Conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Repertory Orchestra, Interim Director of the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association’s Philharmonia, and Guest Conductor of the Lawrence University Symphony Orchestra, the Green Bay Symphony, Ensemble X, Cleveland Opera Theater, the Lawrence University Opera Theater and the Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Kilburn assisted Sir Simon Rattle for performances of Peter Grimes at the Salzburg Easter Festival, and toured with world-renowned clarinetists David Shifrin and Alexander Fiterstein. She has conducted numerous world and USA-premieres and has been involved in several premiere recordings including some on the Naxos American Classics/Milken Archive label. She has conducted in the Cabrillo Music Festival, the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music Festival, the Philadelphia International Music Festival, and the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. Dr. Kilburn was Interim Director of Orchestras at Kent State University where she also taught conducting and conducted the operas. Previous to that she was on faculty at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory where she was the Composition Program Performance Coordinator, guest conducted the Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra, and was on the conducting faculty. Most recently Ms. Kilburn has conducted the Cornell Symphony Orchestra and Cornell Chamber Orchestras and guest conducted festivals in New York and Ohio. Ms. Kilburn studied conducting at the Conservatoire Darius Milhaud in France and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Her teachers include Kenneth Kiesler and Emily Freeman Brown. DMA Contemporary Music, Bowling Green State University, MM in Orchestral Conducting, University of Michigan, MM Choral Conducting, Indiana University, BA Music/French, Wellesley College. She currently makes her home in Ithaca, New York with her husband, Octavio Más-Arocas, and their two children, Luana and Sebastián.
Ellie Nickoli, a fifteen-year-old sophomore at Lexington High School, was the winner of the MSO 2018 vocal competition and has been in over 20 musical theater productions. Her favorite roles include portraying the Baroness, in A Sound of Music, Ariel, in The Little Mermaid, Belle, in Beauty and the Beast, and Alice, in Alice in Wonderland. She plays violin in her high school orchestra and is a member of the show choir Fire and Ice. Ellie is also on Lexington’s cross-country and swim teams.
Starting at 2:00 PM all are welcome to enjoy a Healthy Trick-or-Treat in the lobby of the Renaissance and directly following the event, an opportunity for guests to experiment with orchestral instruments at an “Instrument Petting Zoo” presented by Metronome Music in the lobby of the Renaissance Theatre.
Tickets are on sale now for this concert at the Renaissance Box Office, via phone at (419) 522-2726, and online at MansfieldTickets.com. A limited number of $50 Family Four Pack tickets as well as $10 student tickets are available for this event only by visiting or calling the Renaissance Box Office. Full-price tickets range from $15 to $39. The Mansfield Symphony’s “Symphony Spooktacular” concert is presented in part thanks to funding from the Ohio Arts Council.
Source, Photos: Renaissance Performing Arts Association
