M E D I A  A D V I S O R Y

December 15, 2015 – Richmond, Virginia Join the Richmond Symphony, Music Director Steven Smith, and members from the Virginia Opera Herndon Foundation Emerging Artists Program for a special evening in the style of a Viennese New Year on Saturday, January 9 at 8pm and Sunday, January 10 at 3pm. A New Year in Vienna is a celebration filled with selected works including waltzes, polkas, and arias by Johann Strauss Jr., Franz Lehár, and Richard Strauss. This concert is part of the Altria Masterworks series and will be held at Richmond CenterStage’s Carpenter Theatre.

Music Director Steven Smith comments: “The magic of the annual New Year’s concert with the Vienna Philharmonic is enjoyed by television audiences worldwide. Now you have a chance to experience that festive atmosphere of waltzes, polkas and operetta highlights right here in Richmond with our very own Richmond Symphony! With the love stories of Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier” and Johann Strauss Jr.’s beloved waltzes we will raise our glass of champagne to you.”

The concert features soloists from the Virginia Opera Herndon Foundation Emerging Artist Program, Shannon Jennings (soprano), Megan Marino (mezzo-soprano), David Blalock (tenor) and Brian Mextorf, (baritone).

Tickets start at $10 online at richmondsymphony.com or by calling 1.800.514 ETIX.
Altria Masterworks are free for children 18 and under with a paid adult ticket. College student single tickets are $7 and Soundwave college student subscriptions are available for $25.

The Masterworks Series is sponsored by Altria. The concert sponsor is Keiter.

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About Steven Smith
Music Director & Lewis T. Booker Music Director Chair

This season, Steven Smith marks his sixth season as Music Director of the Richmond Symphony and his fifth season in the Lewis T. Booker Music Director Chair. He continues as Music Director of the Grammy Award-winning Cleveland Chamber Symphony and in 2013 completed a 14-year tenure as Music Director of the Santa Fe Symphony & Chorus.

From 1997 to 2003, Steven Smith served as the Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra where he appeared on the subscription series at Severance Hall and Blossom Music Center. With a strong commitment to arts education, he assisted in the planning and conducting of The Cleveland Orchestra’s educational and family concerts and hosted the orchestra’s annual broadcast videoconference which won an Emmy Award in 2001. For five seasons, he also served as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra which performed by invitation at Carnegie Hall in 2001. From 2002-05, he was associate professor at Oberlin Conservatory, where he led both orchestral and opera performances.

Since arriving in Richmond, Steven Smith has been delighted to collaborate with other performing groups in the region, including the Richmond Ballet’s 30th anniversary celebration in 2014, and the Virginia Opera’s production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro in 2013. He has appeared as guest conductor with orchestras such as San Francisco, Milwaukee, Houston, Detroit, Tulsa, Jacksonville, Puerto Rico Symphony and the Aspen Music Festival. Abroad, he has performed with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, New Zealand’s Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra and Mexico’s Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa. In addition, he has conducted numerous opera and orchestral performances at Indiana University, the Cleveland Institute of Music and Brevard Music Center.

Steven Smith is an ASCAP award-winning composer, with commissions from The Cleveland Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, Eugene Youth Symphony and solo artists. He was named Ohio Composer of the Year for 2008.

A native of Toledo, Ohio, Steven Smith earned Master’s degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. He is the recipient of the CIM Alumni Association 1999 Alumni Achievement Award and the Geraldine C. and Emory M. Ford Foundation’s Conductor Career Development Grant.

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. www.richmondsymphony.com