A Tribute to the Bostons Pops

A TRIBUTE TO THE BOSTON POPS AT THE ARVADA CENTER

JASON SEBER, conductor MICHAEL VAN WIRT, percussion YI ZHAO, violin

Friday, July 29, 2022 at 7:30pm Arvada Center Outdoor Amphitheatre

NICOLAI

DVORAK

BIZET

KREISLER

MAX RICHTER Merry Wives of Windsor Overture Slavonic Dance in C Major, Op. 46, No. 1 Selections from Carmen Suite No. 1 I. Prélude

Ia. Aragonaise II. Intermezzo

III. Les Toréadors

— INTERMISSION —

Tambourin Chinois

Recomposed: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons I. Summer I II. Summer II III. Summer III

ANDERSON — INTERMISSION —

Fiddle Faddle

BERNSTEIN/arr. PERESS West Side Story Overture HAMLISCH/Arr. Tyzik A Marvin Hamlisch Celebration WILLIAMS/arr. CUSTER Highlights from Jurassic Park SOUSA Washington Post March

CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 1 HOURS AND 34 MINUTES WITH TWO 15 MINUTE INTERMISSION.

PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY SEASON SPONSORS

SUMMER 2022

JASON SEBER, conductor

Jason Seber recently completed his six-year tenure with the Kansas City Symphony, beginning as Assistant Conductor in the 2016-17 season, and as Associate Conductor starting in the 2017-18 season. He led the Symphony in over 300 concerts on the Classics Uncorked, Pops, Family, Film + Live Orchestra, Young People’s Concerts, KinderKonzerts, and Link Up series, as well as Christmas Festival, Symphony in the Flint Hills, and many other programs. In October 2019, he made his debut on the Classical Series and recently led another Classical Series program in the spring of 2021. He also served as a co-host for the Symphony’s podcast, “Beethoven Walks into a Bar.”

Prior to his appointment with the Kansas City Symphony, Seber served as Education and Outreach Conductor of the Louisville Orchestra from 2013 to 2016 and Music Director of the Louisville Youth Orchestra from 2005 to 2016. Seber has guest conducted many leading North American orchestras, including the Charleston Symphony, Cleveland Pops, Colorado Symphony, Houston Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Nashville Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and the Windsor Symphony. This summer includes return engagements with the Louisville Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra, Colorado Symphony and Houston Symphony, and a debut with the San Diego Symphony.

A passionate advocate of music education, Seber recently has led the Honors Performance Series Orchestra in performances at Carnegie Hall (2018 and 2022), Royal Festival Hall in London (2019), and the Sydney Opera House (2017). In November 2019 he led the APAC Honors Festival Orchestra in Seoul, Korea. He has served as the All-State Orchestra conductor for Georgia, Missouri and Pennsylvania, and will be the conductor for the Kansas All-State Orchestra in 2024.

Seber has performed with classical artists Jinjoo Cho, Paul Jacobs, Conrad Tao, and Joyce Yang, and a diverse range of pops artists including Patti Austin, Andrew Bird, Boyz II Men, Ashley Brown, Melissa Etheridge, Ben Folds, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Lyle Lovett, Brian Stokes Mitchell, My Morning Jacket, Leslie Odom, Jr., Aoife O’Donovan, Pink Martini, Doc Severinsen, Bobby Watson, and Wynonna. He earned his master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the Cleveland Institute of Music and his bachelor’s degrees in violin performance and music education from Baldwin Wallace University.

SUMMER 2022

MICHAEL VAN WIRT, percussion

Percussionist Michael Van Wirt has established himself as a professional performer and educator in Colorado and elsewhere. In addition to his appointment as Section Percussionist in the Colorado Symphony, Michael has performed with the Houston Symphony and was a New World Symphony Fellow during the 2014- 2015 season.

Michael was also a member of Seraphic Fire’s Firebird Chamber Orchestra, serving as timpanist from 2012-2015. He is an alumnus of the Aspen Music Festival, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, and the Alan Abel Summer Percussion Seminar.

Michael has performed across the United States and abroad. He has studied in Denmark at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, in Japan at the Nagoya Institute for the Arts, and performed in Australia and New Zealand, Spain, and Portugal. He also studied the music of Trinidad with steel-pan master Tom Miller. Michael was a founding member of Miller’s band “Pan Nation” and performed with the group throughout Colorado and the Midwest.

Michael studied percussion at the University of Denver, where he received his Bachelors of Music under Professor John Kinzie. He attended the University of Miami under Matt Strauss and Svet Stoyanov and obtained his Masters Degree in music in 2012. As an educator, Michael has taught at the Lamont School of Music Summer Academy, the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, and is Artist-in-Residence at the University of Northern Colorado.

SUMMER 2022

YI ZHAO, violin

Born in Henan, China, Yi Zhao joined the Colorado Symphony as Assistant Concertmaster in 2014. Since joining the Symphony, Zhao has taken active roles to enrich the musical culture of Colorado. She has appeared as a solo artist with major community orchestras such as Lakewood, Broomfield, and Littleton Symphony Orchestras, and is a frequently featured chamber musician at the Englewood Arts, Walden Chamber Music Society (Salida), and Epic (Colorado Springs) Series.

During summertime Zhao performs at the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson, Wyoming. The Festival Orchestra is comprised of musicians from top orchestras around the world, and Zhao is proud to represent the Colorado Symphony among its ranks. Prior to her invitation to the Tetons, Zhao and her colleagues, Coleman Itzkoff and Andrew Staupe, have been invited to the 2014 La Jolla Music Festival as the Pegasus Trio. There she has shared the stage with many world-renown artists such as Cho-Liang Lin, Yefim Bronfman, Inon Barnatan, Alex Kerr, Desmond Hoebig, Richard O’Neill, Leonard Slatkin, and the Miró Quartet. In addition, she has performed with Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carerras at the Sun Festival in Singapore and concert series at the Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and the Peabody Institute with Michael Kannen.

Zhao received her Bachelor of Music under the tutelage of Qian Zhou at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore in 2007 and earned her Master’s under the guidance of Cho-Liang Lin at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University in May 2013. During these times she was also a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and Music Academy of the West, and worked with other renowned pedagogues such as Pamela Frank, Emmanuel Ax, Glenn Dicterow, Jorja Fleezanis, and Kathleen Winkler. Zhao performs on a 2020 Collin Gallahue violin.