M E D I A  A D V I S O R Y

November 12, 2015 – Richmond, Virginia The Richmond Symphony and Richmond Symphony Chorus celebrate the spirit of the season with Let It Snow on Saturday, December 5 at 8pm and Sunday, December 6 at 3pm at Richmond CenterStage’s Carpenter Theatre.  This winter wonderland of music will be led by Associate Conductor, Keitaro Harada and includes holiday favorites such as “Deck the Halls,” “Sleigh Ride,” and “Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Let It Snow is the perfect annual event to include in your RVA holiday tradition!

The Symphony will be joined by special guests Greater Richmond Children’s Choir directed by Hope Armstrong Erb, and dancers Nicole Oberleitner, Lauren C. Bolding, and Andrew Reid. Narration will be provided by Thomas A. Silvestri and Wesley Buskey.

Both concerts sold out last year! Tickets start at $10 online at richmondsymphony.com or by calling 1.800.514 ETIX. College student tickets are $7 at the Richmond CenterStage box office with valid student ID.

The Pops Series is sponsored by Genworth. This concert is sponsored by Hunton & Williams and Markel.

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About Keitaro Harada

Conductor Keitaro Harada continues to be recognized at the highest levels for his artistic abilities and passion for musical excellence. As a recipient of The Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award (2014 and 2015), Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview (2013), the Seiji Ozawa Conducting Fellowship at Tanglewood Music Festival, a student of Lorin Maazel at Castleton Festival and Fabio Luisi at Pacific Music Festival, Harada’s credentials are exemplary.

Newly appointed Associate Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra, Harada begins his new post in the fall of 2015. As the Associate Conductor of the Arizona Opera, he will lead their production of La fille du régiment in spring of 2015 and of Carmen in 2016. Harada is also Associate Conductor of the Richmond Symphony.

The 2014-15 season held Harada’s conducting debut in Japan with the New Japan Philharmonic in a sold out performance. In 2013, Harada was selected by the League of American Orchestras as one of only six conductors for the Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview. In 2012, Harada was a semi-finalist at the 9th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors in Poland. In 2011, Harada was one of ten semi-finalists invited by Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony to participate in the First Chicago Symphony Orchestra Solti International Conducting Competition.

A native of Tokyo, Japan, he is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and Mercer University. He completed his formal training at University of Arizona with Thomas Cockrell and Charles Bontrager. Harada’s general manager is JEJ Artists. Engagements in Asia are managed by Japan Arts.

About the Richmond Symphony

Founded in 1957, the Richmond Symphony is the largest performing arts organization in Central Virginia. The organization includes an orchestra of more than 70 professional musicians, the 150-voice Richmond Symphony Chorus and more than 260 students in the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra programs. Each season, more than 200,000 members of the community enjoy concerts, radio broadcasts, and educational outreach programs. The Richmond Symphony is partially funded by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

About the Richmond Symphony Chorus

James Erb organized the all-volunteer Richmond Symphony Chorus in 1971 for a December performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, under guest conductor Robert Shaw. For 36 years, Erb continued to direct and build the Chorus to reflect the Symphony’s high standards. Erin Freeman assumed leadership of the Chorus at the start of its 2007–08 season. The repertoire for its selected volunteer membership has included most of the standard repertoire for chorus and orchestra: Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion and Mass in B Minor, Haydn’s Creation, Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 and Choral Fantasy, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Requiem settings by Mozart, Brahms, Verdi and Faure, Mahler’s Symphony No.2, Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony and all of Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe. Over the years they have also sung shorter choral-orchestral works by Handel, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Bruckner, Delius, Debussy, Barber, Britten, Richard Strauss, Vaughan Williams, Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen and Luigi Dallapiccola. Recent projects have included a performance and recording of Mahler Symphony No. 8 with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, under the direction of JoAnn Falletta, a performance with the Richmond Symphony in the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and a recreation of the Chorus’s inaugural performance of Missa Solemnis.