Starlight Symphony Orchestra

2019-2020 CONCERT SEASON

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2019-2020 Concert Season OCTOBER Season Opener - "Classical Concert" The Starlight Symphony Orchestra is excited to present the opening concert of the 2019-2020 season.

October 19, 2019 at 7:00 PM Hays CISD Performing Arts Center 979 Kohler’s Crossing Kyle, TX

October 20, 2019 at 4:00 PM Wimberley First Baptist Church 15951 Winters Mill Parkway, Wimberley, TX

DECEMBER Holiday Concerts Join the Starlight Symphony Orchestra as it celebrates the holiday season with a concert providing an interactive, family-fun evening of heartwarming holiday favorites.

December 14, 2019 at 2:00 PM Hays CISD Performing Arts Center 979 Kohler’s Krossing Kyle TX

December 14, 2019 at 7:00 PM Hays CISD Performing Arts Center 979 Kohler’s Krossing Kyle TX

December 15, 2019 at 4:00 PM Wimberley First Baptist Church 15951 Winters Mill Parkway, Wimberley, TX

MARCH Classical Young Artist Series The Starlight Symphony Orchestra is pleased to present “A Celebration of Youth” in which the Starlight Symphony shines the spotlight on the winners of the 2020 Young Artist Solo Competition.

Winners of the 2020 Young Artist Solo Competition – TBA March 14, 2020 at 7:00 PM Hays CISD Performing Arts Center 979 Kohler’s Crossing Rd. Kyle, TX

March 15, 2020 at 4:00 PM Wimberley First Baptist Church 15951 Winters Mill Parkway, Wimberley, TX

MAY Pop Series The Starlight Symphony Orchestra presents its Pops Concerts.

May 2, 2020 at 4:00 PM (Please note: This is a change from our usual location & time for a Saturday concert) Wimberley First Baptist Church 15951 Winters Mill Parkway, Wimberley, TX 2 •STARLIGHT SYMPHONY

May 3, 2020 at 4:00 PM (Please note: This is a change from our usual location & time for a Sunday concert) Hays CISD Performing Arts Center 979 Kohler’s Krossing, Kyle TX

ABOUT The Starlight Symphony Orchestra is a non-profit orchestra in residence at the Hays CISD Performing Arts Center. This 40 plus group of dedicated musicians is a hybrid of student players to seasoned musicians.

The Starlight Symphony Orchestra was started in 2002 by volunteer musicians from Hays County. The first formal program for the public was presented in Wimberley on May 1, 2003 and again in Dripping Springs on May 16th.

Throughout the season they bring beautiful orchestral music to the communities they serve. Currently under the direction of the talented and esteemed conductor, Dr. David Oertel, the musicians rehearse diligently to present exceptional free concerts to the community.

The Starlight Symphony Orchestra enjoys playing classical and pop music and encourages young musicians through their Young Artist Solo Competition. Each year, they host the competition in the Spring and invite outstanding music students to compete for music scholarships. The top performers are selected as featured soloists at the Spring concert. This competition is open to all orchestral instruments, including strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, and piano. Suitable pieces are solo works that are intended to be performed with orchestral accompaniment. Winning soloists receive a certificate and a scholarship towards education in music.

Application and performance information can be found on the website at www.StarlightSymphony.org STARLIGHT SYMPHONY • 3

Our History The Starlight Symphony Orchestra began in early 2002 as an idea of Wimberley resident and clarinetist Dick Kinas. A long time member of The Wimberley Players theater organization, Kinas was considering expanding the Wimberley Players dream of building a new playhouse to include creating a performing arts center for the surrounding community. He figured an orchestra would be a good way to head down that path of expansion, and soon, he was talking with Jenny Benedict, Pat Surguy, and Jeri Ross, who had all also been thinking about establishing a string orchestra in the Central Texas area.

Dripping Strings resident Pat Surguy has played violin for 30 years with numerous orchestras and currently performs with the Austin Civic Orchestra and in chamber ensembles. Her experience and knowledge of the orchestral repertoire and performance etiquette made her the perfect candidate to serve as Concertmaster for the upstart organization. Pat also took on the role of music librarian (aided by the contributions of Doug Koeppe and the Bergan Library of Music) and personnel manager.

Jenny Benedict had a wealth of experience helping non-profits achieve their goals, as well as a number of years playing violin with groups such as Paula Bird’s Advanced Wildflower Suzuki ensemble, the Austin Philharmonia Orchestra, and with Deanna Badgett’s Suzuki Strings of San Marcos and the Hill Country Suzuki Strings where she and her daughter studied violin together. They both were looking for every opportunity to perform in orchestras. Jenny gladly took on the role of Music Committee Chair.

Her organizational skills and thoughtful planning and foresight helped the committee navigate the uncharted territory of the new venture. Jenny single-handedly developed the orchestra’s mission and presentation.

“Suzuki-Mom-turned-community-activist-for education-and-the-arts,” Jeri Ross, had the requisite skills and motivation to take on the role of orchestra secretary, which included handling internal communications with the orchestra members and organizing receptions…in 4 •STARLIGHT SYMPHONY

short, she became “orchestra mom.” She had served on several boards and committees for education. She also had been serving, along side Dick Kinas, as executive vice-president for the Wimberley Players with the mission of seeing the new theater through to completion. Having raised a young violinist, Jeri knew the community orchestra would be her daughter’s only chance to gain orchestral experience, since funding for the musical arts in the school was limited to band. Jeri was the only nonmusician member of the initial committee.

After enlisting the aid of Dan Stephens, the Minister of Music at Wimberley’s First Baptist Church, to serve as the Music Director and Conductor, these stalwart organizers submitted a proposal to the Wimberley Players board to form a music committee that would act separately from the Wimberley Players in directing the activities of the soon-to-be-formed Starlight Symphony Orchestra. This standing committee would operate under the umbrella of the Wimberley Players, making the orchestra an affiliated nonprofit group and a future resident of the planned performing arts center—the Wimberley Playhouse.

The Starlight Symphony Orchestra made its debut on April 28, 2003, in a special performance for the students of Scudder Elementary School in Wimberley High School’s Lone Star Theater. In the enthusiastically received interactive program, the orchestra played excerpts from the orchestral repertoire, and then members of the orchestra gave students a close-up look at their instruments, explaining the instruments’ histories and demonstrating their sounds.

The first formal programs for the public were then presented in Wimberley on May 1, 2003 with a program repeat in Dripping Springs on May 16 in the United Methodist Church. Works included Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, Mozart’s Eine Kleine Natchtmusik, R. Vaughan Williams’ English Folk Songs Suite, and others.

In October 2017, The Starlight Symphony realized its dream of becoming its own 501 (c ) (3 ) Non Profit Organization.

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Our Mission • Provide Central Texas musicians with a cultural and social gathering opportunity where players can meet and work together.

• Provide Central Texas communities with entertainment by high quality musicians, and social events at which like-minded people can assemble.

• Provide opportunities for Central Texas students to play with an orchestra, giving them the experiences of working with a conductor, learning a part, playing with a full complement of instruments, understanding orchestral literature, and performing for the community.

• Educate Central Texas student populations about orchestra such as with performances and interactive presentations introducing them to the instruments, players, and music. Preserve the heritage of instrumental music from historical literature to contemporary compositions.

• Associate with other performing arts organizations in the Central Texas area.

• Establish a group which, by its organizational and operational structures, fosters a spirit of cooperation and goodwill among its members and ensures long-term existence.

Board of Directors The Starlight Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors & Volunteers provide the leadership for each concert season. Each member volunteers their time, efforts and support to ensure the SSO presents and performs an exceptional concert season for our hill country residents, friends and family.

Walt Warren – President Susan Thurber – Past President Deidra Hoxie – Vice President Pat Surguy – Secretary & Librarian Wellborn Gregg – Treasurer Marian Brackney – Concertmaster Todd Sloan – Young Artist Coordinator Meaghan Selger Nutt Publicity & Marketing Assistant Suzanne Warmack – Advertising Placement Coordinator Joanna Millinor – Communications Coordinator Kristle Gomez – At Large Barbara Sholl – Board Member Emeritus Dr. David Oertel Conductor & Music Director 8 •STARLIGHT SYMPHONY

Concertmaster Starlight Symphony is extremely pleased to welcome Marian Brackney to the role of concertmaster for the 20192020 concert season. A concertmaster is the first chair violinist in an orchestra. More importantly, a concertmaster is a leader and a teacher to the rest of the orchestra. They are also responsible for tuning the orchestra prior to a concert as well as the solo violin pieces.

When the board members of the Starlight Symphony Orchestra were tasked with selecting a new concertmaster, it was important to pick a musician who was passionate about the mission of the orchestra. We are extremely pleased to welcome Marian Brackney to the role of concertmaster for the 2019-2020 concert season.

Marian is a full-time working violinist, studio musician and private violin/viola teacher. She began her musical training at the age of seven when she studied under the world renowned Violeta Smailovic-Huart and under Dr. Alan Asher at Texas Woman’s University.

When she’s not playing with the Starlight Symphony you can hear her on stage with singer songwriters throughout the Hill Country, the state of Texas and beyond. She has played on over 100 albums and on stage with-Walt Wilkins and the Mystiqueros, Susan Gibson, Brandon Rhyder, Jason Eady, Kevin Welch, Pat Green, Michael Hearne, Shake Russell, Tommy Alverson and many more.

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Music Director David Oertel is Music Director and Conductor of the Starlight Symphony Orchestra and the Austin Philharmonic both located in central Texas. He has directed a variety of ensembles including theatre and opera orchestras and choruses, community bands and orchestras as well as small ensembles, jazz ensembles and silent film orchestras.Oertel has also guest conducted orchestras in Houston, TX, Greensboro, NC, Austin, TX, St. Petersburg, Russia and Zlin, Czech Republic. Oertel has taught at High Point University (NC), North Carolina A&T University and University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Dr. Oertel was Music Director of the Lee County Orchestra in North Carolina for thirteen seasons and was celebrated with that orchestras 25th Anniversary season in October 2013.

Oertel was a 2017 finalist in The American Prize for Orchestral Programming for his 2014-2015 season with the Starlight Symphony Orchestra. He is also a co-author for the 6th edition of the standard reference book, “Daniels’ Orchestral Music” due out in 2022.

Oertel holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro as well as a Masters degree in Applied Performance from the University of Houston. His undergraduate degree, in Music Education, is from the University of North Texas.

Oertel has served as conductor and music director for

over 30 musical theatre and opera productions including Don Giovanni, Street Scene, Sweeney Todd, Chicago, West Side Story, Grease, Jesus Christ Superstar, Bat Boy, and Seussical the Musical.

Oertel has studied with many conducting luminaries including Robert Linder, David Daniels, Max Rudolf, Kirk Trevor, Samuel Jones, Hans Graf, Niklaus Wyss, Adrian Gnam, Franz Krager, Serge Zehnacher and David Holley. www.davidoertel.com

Oertel wins The American Prize in Orchestral Programming David William Oertel wins The American Prize in Orchestral Programming—the Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award, 2019!

David William Oertel, conductor of the Starlight Symphony Orchestra in Wimberley TX is the winner of The American Prize in Orchestral Programming— the Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award, 2019, in the community orchestra division. David was selected from applications reviewed recently from all across the United States. The American Prize is the nation’s most comprehensive series of non-profit competitions in the performing arts, unique in scope and structure, designed to recognize and reward the best performing artists, ensembles and composers in the United States 10 •STARLIGHT SYMPHONY

based on submitted recordings. The American Prize was founded in 2009 and is awarded annually in many areas of the performing arts.

The American Prize—Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award in Orchestral Programming honors the memory of the great Lithuanian conductor, Maestro Vytautas Marijosius, music director of the Lithuanian State Opera, and for nearly thirty-five years Director of Orchestral Activities at the Hartt School of Music. The Prize recognizes and rewards the best achievement in the unique field of orchestral programming, where the selection of repertoire by knowledgeable, creative and courageous music directors builds orchestras and audiences, educates young people and adults, and enriches the community.

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Performing Arts Center

The Starlight Symphony Orchestra extends a special thanks to the Hays CISD Performing Arts Center for graciously serving as the concert and rehearsal home of the Orchestra 979 Kohler’s

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