A PUBLICATION OF THE NASHVILLE SYMPHONY
2025
CHRISTMASTIME WITH TRISHA YEARWOOD DEC. 2 & 3 | HOME ALONE IN CONCERT DEC. 5 TO 7 ELF IN CONCERT DEC. 10 & 11 | HOLIDAY BRASS SPECTACULAR DEC. 14 CODY FRY CHRISTMAS DEC. 16 | HANDEL’S MESSIAH DEC. 19 TO 20
It’s that most wonderful time of the year again, and all of us at the Nashville Symphony are feeling especially grateful for YOU
As I continue my final season as President & CEO, I reflect on our shared accomplishments and the support from patrons and the community that made them possible. Your generosity and belief in our mission have sustained us through so many triumphs and challenges. Thank you!
This month’s programming shows what makes your Nashville Symphony special. There’s something for everyone: Christmastime with Trisha Yearwood, Cody Fry Christmas, and Drew & Ellie Holcomb’s Neighborly Christmas bring modern holiday magic. Home Alone and Elf in Concert return as beloved family favorites with live orchestral accompaniment. Holiday Brass Spectacular and Preservation Hall’s Creole Christmas offer holiday classics with a little lagniappe (something extra).
We’re also especially proud this month to continue our annual tradition of performing Handel’s Messiah . I doubt many of you are aware of this, but our beloved and extraordinary Nashville Symphony Chorus was formed in 1963 for the express purpose of singing Messiah . Since then, the Chorus has become a staple of our programming and a vital artistic force in its own right. Its history includes so many memorable collaborations with such partners as the Fisk Jubilee Singers and other local collegiate vocal ensembles, the “Let Freedom Sing” Celebration Chorus and Met Singers, and many others. The Nashville Symphony Chorus began recording not long after my arrival in Nashville, and their recordings with the orchestra have earned them critical praise across the globe from some of the world’s leading classical music critics. We are grateful to each and every member of the chorus, past and present, for their extraordinary talent and commitment.
No December would be complete without Nashville’s Nutcracker, our cherished annual partnership with the Nashville Ballet . We are honored that the orchestra each year provides the live score that helps bring this family classic to life, night after night at TPAC.
Finally, this month, we gather for The Symphony Ball , our signature fundraising event supporting year-round student programs, education initiatives, and free community performances across Middle Tennessee. This year, the Harmony Award honorees include T Bone Burnett for his extraordinary contributions to Nashville’s unique musical landscape, and to the musical universe writ large, as well as the Grand Ole Opry, in recognition of the Opry’s 100th anniversary as one of Nashville’s longestrunning cultural institutions.
Every note, tradition, and memory is possible because of your support. Ticket sales cover only part of the cost to bring our programming to life. As you consider your year-end giving plans, I hope you’ll remember the Nashville Symphony generously and help us continue to serve our community in ways that inspire, connect, and uplift.
From the musicians, staff, board, and volunteers of your Nashville Symphony, may your holidays be merry and bright, and filled joy, peace, love, and extraordinary live music.
Warmest regards,
Alan D. Valentine | President & CEO
The Nashville Symphony inspires and engages a diverse and growing community with extraordinary live orchestral music experiences.
615.687.6400
info@NashvilleSymphony.org NashvilleSymphony.org
Video cameras, recording devices, and flash photography are strictly prohibited in the concert hall or in any other space where a performance or rehearsal is taking place. Cameras with a detachable lens may only be used pending approval from the artist and the venue and will be subject to rules and restrictions. For more information, please contact the Nashville Symphony's Communications office PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEO POLICY
73 W hite Bridge Rd, STE 103-115 N ashville, TN 37205
615.909.9904
Music Advisor
NATHAN ASPINALL Resident Conductor
FIRST VIOLIN*
Peter Otto, Concertmaster
Walter Buchanan Sharp Chair
Erin Hall, Acting Associate Concertmaster
Gerald C. Greer, Acting Assistant Concertmaster
Tianpei Ai
Isabel Bartles
Francesca Bass
Beverly Drukker
Dawn Gingrich
Anna Lisa Hoepfinger
John Maple
Kirsten Mitchell
Ashley Odom
SECOND VIOLIN*
Jung-Min Shin, Principal
Lucia Nowik, Acting Assistant Principal
Likai He
Daniel Kim
Charissa Leung
Louise Morrison
Laura Ross
Johna Smith
Jeremy Williams
VIOLA*
Daniel Reinker, Principal
Shu-Zheng Yang, Assistant Principal
Michelle Lackey Collins
The Drs. Mark & Nancy Peacock Chair
Christopher Farrell
Anthony Parce
Melinda Whitley
Clare Yang
CELLO*
Kevin Bate, Principal James Victor Miller Chair
Una Gong, Assistant Principal
Anthony LaMarchina, Principal Cello Emeritus
Stephen Drake
Bradley Mansell
Keith Nicholas
Lynn Marie Peithman
Xiao-Fan Zhang
BASS*
Joel Reist, Principal
Glen Wanner, Assistant Principal
Matthew Abramo
Evan Bish
Kevin Jablonski
Katherine Munagian
FLUTE
Érik Gratton, Principal Anne Potter Wilson Chair
Leslie Fagan, Assistant Principal
Gloria Yun, Norma Grobman Rogers Chair
PICCOLO
Gloria Yun, Norma Grobman Rogers Chair
OBOE
Titus Underwood, Principal ◊
Christopher Gaudi, Acting Principal +
Ellen Menking, Assistant Principal
Kate Bruns +
ENGLISH HORN
Kate Bruns+
Music Director Laureate
Chorus Director
CLARINET
Danny Goldman, Acting Principal +
Katherine Kohler, Assistant Principal
Daniel Lochrie
E-FLAT CLARINET
Katherine Kohler
BASS CLARINET
Daniel Lochrie
BASSOON
Julia Harguindey, Principal ◊
Asha Kline, Acting Principal + Gil Perel, Acting Assistant Principal
Nicole Haywood
Vera Tenorio +
CONTRABASSOON
Nicole Haywood
Vera Tenorio +
HORN
Leslie Norton, Principal The Dr. Anne T. & Peter L. Neff Chair
Beth Beeson
Patrick Walle, Associate Principal/3rd Horn ◊
Radu V. Rusu, Acting Associate Principal/ 3rd Horn
Hunter Sholar
Anna Spina, Acting Assistant Principal/ Utility Horn +
William Leathers, Principal
Patrick Kunkee, Co-Principal Alexander Blazek
TROMBONE
Paul Jenkins, Principal
Anthony Cosio-Marron, Assistant Principal
BASS TROMBONE
Chance Gompert
TUBA
Chandler Currier, Principal
TIMPANI
Joshua Hickman, Principal
PERCUSSION
Sam Bacco, Principal
Richard Graber, Assistant Principal
HARP
Licia Jaskunas, Principal
KEYBOARD
Robert Marler, Principal
LIBRARY
Renee Ann Pflughaupt, Principal Librarian
Amelia Van Howe, Librarian
ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL
Pavana Stetzik, Director of Orchestra Personnel
Sarah Figueroa, Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager
Internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin is Music Director Laureate of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO), Directeur Musical Honoraire of the Orchestre National de Lyon (ONL), Conductor Laureate of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria (OFGC), and Artistic Consultant to the Las Vegas Philharmonic (LVP). He maintains a rigorous schedule of guest conducting and is active as a composer, author, and educator.
The 2025/26 season includes engagements with the National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland), Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra, SLSO, USC Thornton Symphony, LVP, Taiwan Philharmonic, KBS Symphony Orchestra (Seoul), Gunma Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo), Nashville Symphony, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Warsaw Philharmonic, Franz Schubert Filharmonia (Barcelona), ONL, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica George Enescu (Bucharest), OFGC, and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.
Slatkin has received six GRAMMY® Awards and 35 nominations. Naxos recently reissued Vox audiophile editions of his SLSO recordings featuring the works of Gershwin, Rachmaninov, and Prokofiev. Other Naxos recordings include Slatkin Conducts Slatkin a compilation of pieces written by generations of his family—as well as works by Saint-Saëns, Ravel, Berlioz, Copland, Borzova, McTee, and Williams. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Slatkin also holds the rank of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor. He has been awarded the Prix Charbonnier from the Federation of Alliances Françaises, Austria’s Decoration of Honor in Silver, and the League of American Orchestras’ Gold Baton. His debut book, Conducting Business (2012), for which he received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Special Recognition Award, was followed by Leading Tones (2017) and
Classical Crossroads: The Path Forward for Music in the 21st Century (2021). His latest books are Eight Symphonic Masterworks of the Twentieth Century (spring 2024) and Eight Symphonic Masterworks of the Nineteenth Century (fall 2024), part of an ongoing series of essays that supplement the scorestudy process, published by Bloomsbury.
Slatkin has held posts as Music Director of the New Orleans Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, SLSO, National Symphony Orchestra, DSO, and ONL, and he was Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He has served as Principal Guest Conductor of London’s Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and the Minnesota Orchestra.
He has conducted virtually all the leading orchestras in the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk (Munich), Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam), Orchestre de Paris, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as all five London orchestras.
Slatkin’s opera conducting has taken him to the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Santa Fe Opera, Vienna State Opera, Stuttgart Opera, and Opéra Bastille in Paris.
Born in Los Angeles to a distinguished musical family, he began his musical training on the violin and first studied conducting with his father, followed by Walter Susskind at Aspen and Jean Morel at Juilliard. He makes his home in St. Louis with his wife, composer Cindy McTee. For more information, visit leonardslatkin.com.
Australian Conductor
Nathan Aspinall has led orchestras across the globe and is widely admired for his thoughtful, nuanced interpretations and powerful performances. His collaborative approach to performing with fellow musicians has resulted in ongoing partnerships and deep relationships with the orchestras with whom he performs.
Nathan currently serves as Resident Conductor with the Nashville Symphony and this season will lead the orchestra in multiple programs including his fourth appearance on the classical subscription series with a program of Berlioz, Ligeti and the Britten Violin Concerto with Benjamin Beilman. In previous seasons Nathan has conducted acclaimed performances with the Nashville Symphony in dynamic repertoire including symphonies of Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak and Sibelius and last season led a special all Ravel program to mark the 150th anniversary of the composers birth.
Aspinall has performed around the world, leading the orchestras of Minnesota, Detroit, St Louis, Atlanta, Sydney and the MendelssohnOrchesterakademie of the Gewandhausorchester
in Leipzig. He has assisted many of today’s leading conductors including Stéphane Denève, Jakub Hrůša, Nathalie Stutzmann, Thomas Søndergård, and Simone Young.
Nathan was a conducting fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center with the Boston Symphony Orchestra where he was mentored by Andris Nelsons, Thomas Adès and Giancarlo Guerrero. He is also a recipient of the Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize at the Aspen Music Festival.
A strong believer that music is for everyone, Nathan is passionate about orchestras reaching an ever-widening audience. At the Nashville Symphony, he spearheads education and community initiatives, the commissioning of new projects and curates community programing. Supporting future generations of musicians, Nathan is an advocate for music education and outreach and has led performances and masterclasses for conservatories, universities and youth orchestras around the country. Festival appearances include the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Oregon Bach Festival and the Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Seminar. He studied orchestral conducting with Hugh Wolff at New England Conservatory in Boston and music performance at the University of Queensland.
Appointed as Chorus Director of the Nashville Symphony in 2016 , Dr. Biddlecombe has raised the bar of excellence for Nashville’s premier choral ensemble through intense musical preparation, diverse programming, and communitybuilding. He also serves as Professor of Choral Studies and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, where he directs the Vanderbilt Sixteen and teaches courses in choral conducting and music education.
His work with the Nashville Symphony has included chorus preparation for many of the repertoire’s most revered masterworks. Notable performances have included two Mahler symphonies, Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3 “Kaddish”, and Requiems by Mozart and Verdi. He has prepared the chorus for two major
world-premiere recordings, John Harbison’s Requiem (rel. 2018, Naxos) as well as the upcoming release of Gabriela Lena-Frank’s Conquest Requiem and Antonio Estevez’s Cantata Criolla. He has conducted the chorus and orchestra in performances of Haydn’s Creation, Handel’s Messiah , Vivaldi’s Gloria , and the annual Voices of Spring concert.
Tucker is a veteran teacher and advocate for music education. He frequently conducts scholastic honor choirs throughout the United States, with international engagements in England, Scotland, China, and the Czech Republic. Dr. Biddlecombe is a graduate of SUNY Potsdam and Florida State University, where he completed studies in choral conducting and music education with Daniel Gordon and André Thomas, respectively. He resides in Nashville with his wife Mary Biddlecombe, director of the Blair Academy at Vanderbilt, and Artistic Director of Vanderbilt Youth Choirs.
TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2 & 3 AT 7:30 PM
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ, conductor
With a career spanning three decades, Trisha Yearwood is a GRAMMY®, CMA®, and ACM® Awardwinning icon whose powerhouse voice and passion have captivated millions. Known as a singer, actress, author, chef, and entrepreneur, she has achieved multiplatinum success while continuing to evolve as an artist. Most recently, Trisha released two acclaimed albums, The Mirror , a deeply personal collection of songs co-written by Trisha, and Christmastime , a joyful holiday project featuring festive favorites, a new
original, and sweeping orchestral arrangements. In 2019, Trisha released Every Girl, her first full-length country album in over a decade, which included an acoustic re-recording of her breakthrough single, “She’s In Love With The Boy”—the most-listened-to country song by a female artist in Billboard’s Country Airplay Chart history. Trisha’s influence continues to reach new heights: she was recently inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame, celebrated 25 years with the Grand Ole Opry, and received the ACM Honors Icon Award and CMT Awards June Carter Cash Humanitarian Award. Beyond music, she is the Emmy® winning host of Trisha’s Southern Kitchen, authored four New York Times bestsellers, and co-owns Nashville’s largest honky-tonk.
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Enrico Lopez-Yañez has quickly established himself as one of the nation’s leading conductors of popular music and become known for his unique style of audience engagement. Lopez-Yañez holds the titled positions of Principal Pops Conductor of the Detroit and Pacific Symphonies, Principal Conductor of Dallas Symphony Presents, and Principal Guest Conductor of Pops at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He previously served as Principal Pops Conductor of the Nashville Symphony for eight seasons.
As a trailblazer in the symphonic world, Lopez-Yañez has premiered dozens of orchestral collaborations with artists including Dolly Parton, Kelsey Ballerini, Portugal. The Man, The Mavericks, Tituss Burgess, and The War & Treaty. Lopez-Yañez has collaborated with a broad spectrum of artists including: Nas, Patti LaBelle, Itzhak Perlman, Kenny Loggins, Stewart Copeland, Toby Keith, Gladys Knight, Ben Folds, and more. As an active composer/arranger his works have been performed by orchestras across North America including the Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, National Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and Toronto Symphony, among many others.
Lopez-Yañez was the recipient of the 2023 “Mexicanos Distinguidos” Award by the Mexican government, an award granted to Mexican citizens living abroad for outstanding career accomplishments in their field. As an advocate for Latin music, he has arranged and produced shows for Latin Fire, Mariachi Los Camperos, and The Three Mexican Tenors, and collaborated with artists including Aida Cuevas, Arturo Sandoval, and Lila Downs.
As Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Symphonica Productions, LLC, Lopez-Yañez curates and leads programs designed to cultivate new audiences. Symphonica’s productions have been performed by major orchestra across North America including the Baltimore Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and many more.
As a producer, composer, and arranger, LopezYañez’s work can be heard on numerous albums including the UNESCO benefit album Action Moves People United and children’s music albums including The Spaceship that Fell in My Backyard, winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Hollywood Music and Media Awards, Family Choice Awards and Kokowanda Bay, winner of a Global Media Award as well as a Parents’ Choice Award where Lopez-Yañez was lauded for his “catchy arrangements” (Parents’ Choice Foundation).
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5 & 6 AT 7:30 PM | SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7 AT 2 PM
JASON SEBER , conductor
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX Presents A JOHN HUGHES Production A CHRIS COLUMBUS Film
MACAULAY CULKIN
JOE PESCI
DANIEL STERN
JOHN HEARD and CATHERINE O’HARA
Music by JOHN WILLIAMS
Film Editor: RAJA GOSNELL
Production Designer: JOHN MUTO
Director of Photography: JULIO MACAT
Executive Producers: MARK LEVINSON & SCOTT ROSENFELT and TARQUIN GOTCH
Written and Produced by JOHN HUGHES
Directed by CHRIS COLUMBUS
Soundtrack Album Available on CBS Records, Cassettes and Compact Discs
Color by DELUXE®
Tonight's program is a presentation of the complete film Home Alone with a live performance of the film’s entire score, including music played by the orchestra during the end credits. Out of respect for the musicians and your fellow audience members, please remain seated until the conclusion of the credits.
Film screening of Home Alone courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox.
© 1990 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
MARY BIDDLECOMBE, director
Home Alone in Concert produced by Film Concerts
Live!, a joint venture of IMG Artists, LLC and The Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency, Inc.
Producers: Steven A. Linder and Jamie Richardson
Director of Operations: Rob Stogsdill
Production Manager: Sophie Greaves
Production Assistant: Katherine Miron
Worldwide Representation: IMG Artists, LLC
Technical Director: Mike Runice
Music Composed by John Williams
Music Preparation: Jo Ann Kane Music Service
Film Preparation for Concert Performance: Ramiro Belgardt
Technical Consultant: Laura Gibson
Sound Remixing for Concert Performance: Chace Audio by Deluxe
The score for Home Alone has been adapted for live concert performance.
With special thanks to: Twentieth Century Fox, Chris Columbus, David Newman, John Kulback, Julian Levin, Mark Graham, and the musicians and staff of the Nashville Symphony.
This concert will last two hours and 10 minutes, including a 20 -minute intermission.
JOHN WILLIAMS
In a career spanning more than six decades, John Williams has become one of America’s most accomplished and successful composers for film and the concert stage. He remains one of our nation’s most distinguished and contributive musical voices. He has composed the music for more than one hundred films, including all nine Star Wars films, the first three Harry Potter films, Schindler’s List, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Lincoln, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman and the Indiana Jones films. He served as music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra for fourteen seasons and remains their Laureate Conductor. He has composed numerous works for the concert stage including two symphonies and more than a dozen concertos commissioned by some of America’s most prominent orchestras. He has received five Academy Awards and fiftyfour Oscar nominations, seven British Academy Awards, twenty-five GRAMMY ®s, four Golden Globes, and five Emmys. His other honors include
JASON SEBER
Jason Seber is known for his inviting and engaging approach on and off the podium. A strong believer in the eclectic experiences which today’s symphony orchestras offer their communities, he strives to make music of many genres and styles accessible, relevant, and meaningful to diverse audiences across the country.
Seber has conducted many leading American orchestras, including the Baltimore, Colorado, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Nashville, National, North Carolina, Phoenix, San Diego, and St. Louis Symphony, the Louisville and Minnesota Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Cincinnati Pops, among others. Seber has conducted more than 25 full feature films and has had the pleasure of performing with a wide range of artists including Patti Austin, Mason Bates, Andrew Bird, Boyz II Men, Ashley Brown, Melissa Etheridge, Ben Folds, Cody Fry, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Indigo Girls, Wynonna Judd, Lyle Lovett, Katharine McPhee,
the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts, an honorary KBE from Queen Elizabeth II, the Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute, Spain’s Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, and the Gold Medal from the UK’s prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society.
Ever since Home Alone appeared, it has held a unique place in the affections of a very broad public. Director Chris Columbus brought a uniquely fresh and innocent approach to this delightful story, and the film has deservedly become a perennial at holiday time.
I took great pleasure in composing the score for the film, and I am especially delighted that the Nashville Symphony has agreed to perform the music in a live presentation of the movie. I know I speak for everyone connected with the making of the film in saying that we are greatly honored by this event.
— John Williams
Natalie Merchant, Brian Stokes Mitchell, My Morning Jacket, Leslie Odom Jr., Aoife O’Donovan, Pink Martini, Ben Rector, Stephen Schwartz, Doc Severinsen, Violent Femmes, and Bobby Watson.
Seber served as associate conductor of the Kansas City Symphony from 2016 to 2022. In this position he led the Symphony in more than 300 performances on the Classical, Pops, Classics Uncorked, Family, Film + Live Orchestra, Education, and Christmas Festival series. He also served as co-host for the Symphony’s podcast, “Beethoven Walks into a Bar.” Prior to Kansas City, Seber was the education and outreach conductor at the Louisville Orchestra from 2013 to 2016 and music director of the Louisville Youth Orchestra from 2005 to 2016.
A passionate advocate for music education, Seber has led the Honors Performance Series Orchestra in concert at Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, and Royal Festival Hall in London. He is a frequent guest conductor of the National Repertory Orchestra each summer and he has served as the All-State Orchestra conductor for Georgia, Kansas, Missouri, and Pennsylvania.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10 & 11 AT 7:30 PM
JUSTIN FREER , conductor
“Elf”
Directed by Jon Favreau
Produced by Kent Alterman, Cale Boyter, Julie Wixson Darmody, Toby Emmerich, and Jimmy Miller
Written by David Berenbaum
Starring:
Will Ferrell
James Caan
Bob Newhart
Edward Asner
Mary Steenburgen
Zooey Deschanel
Music by John Debney
Cinematography by Greg Gardiner
Edited by Dan Lebental
Produced by New Line Cinema & Guy Walks Into a Bar Productions
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Justin Freer President/Founder/Producer
Brady Beaubien Co-Founder/Producer
Chief XR Officer / Head of Publicity and Communications Andrew P. Alderete
Director of Operations Andrew McIntyre
Senior Marketing Manager Brittany Fonseca
Senior Social Media Manager Si Peng
Worldwide Representation Opus 3
Music Preparation JoAnn Kane Music Service
Sound Remixing Justin Moshkevich, Igloo Music Studios
This concert will last two hours and 20 minutes, including a 20-minute intermission.
JOHN DEBNEY
John Debney is the ultimate film music character actor. In equal demand for family films such as Jingle Jangle, Come Away, and Elf, as he is for adventure films like Iron Man 2, the Oscar-nominated composer also scored the powerful and poignant The Passion of the Christ. Debney is an agile jack-of-all-genres, sci-fi adventure (ORVILLE), composing for comedies ( Bruce Almighty), horror (Dream House), and romance (Valentine’s Day) with the same confidence and panache. Debney is also known for his work in such films as Princess Diaries, Sin City, Liar Liar, Spy Kids, No Strings Attached, The Emperor’s New Groove, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Hocus Pocus. Debney’s work also includes Disney’s The Jungle Book directed by Jon Favreau, Fox’s Ice Age: Collision Course directed by Mike Thurmeier, and Twentieth Century Fox’s award-winning musical The Greatest Showman starring Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron. Recent films include The Beach Bum starring Matthew McConaughey and directed by Harmony Korine, the Warner Bros. comedy feature Isn’t It Romantic starring Rebel Wilson, Paramount Pictures’ family adventure feature Dora and the Lost City of Gold, and Bleecker Street’s biopic Brian Banks
Born in Glendale, California, Debney’s professional life began after he studied composition at the California Institute of the Arts, when he went to work writing
music and orchestrating for Disney Studios and various television series. He won his first Emmy in 1990 for the main theme for The Young Riders, and his career soon hit a gallop. Since then, he has won three more Emmys (Sea Quest DSV), and been nominated for a total of six (most recently in 2012 for his work on the Kevin Costner western miniseries Hatfields & McCoys ). His foray into video game scoring— 2007’s Lair—resulted in a BAFTA nomination and a Best Video game Score award from The International Film Music Critics Association.
Debney has collaborated with acclaimed directors as diverse as Robert Rodriguez, Garry Marshall, Mel Gibson, the Farrelly Brothers, Jon Favreau, Jim Sheridan, Ivan Reitman, Peter Chelsom, Rob Cohen, Brian Robbins, Tom Shadyac, Sam Raimi, Adam Shankman, Howie Deutch, Renny Harlin, Peter Hyams, and Kenny Ortega. He was nominated by the Academy for his The Passion of the Christ score. Inspired by that score, he then created The Passion Oratorio, performed in 2015 in the historic Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba, Spain in front of 6,000 people during Holy Week. In 2005, Debney was the youngest recipient of ASCAP’s Henry Mancini Career Achievement Award.
“If I’m doing my job well,” says Debney, “I need to feel it. I really try to make sure that whatever I’m doing—even if it’s a comedy—that I’m feeling it and feeling either humor or the pathos or the dramatic impact of what I’m seeing. That’s the way I approach it.”
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14 AT 7:30 PM
CHRIS NORTON, conductor
JAMES PIERPOINT ARR. ROBERT ELKJER
Jingle Bells
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
ARR. ANTHONY DILORENZO
Joy to the World
SERGEI PROKOFIEV ARR. SANDY SMITH
"Troika" from Lieutenant Kijé
TRADITIONAL ARR. ROGER HARVEY
Fantasy de Noël
TRADITIONAL ARR. PHIL SNEDECOR
Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
TRADITIONAL ARR. ANDREW CARTER
Toccata on "Veni Emmanuel"
FRANZ GRUBER ARR. JONATHAN RING
Silent Night
TRADITIONAL ARR. JIM STEPHENSON
Holiday Overture
INTERMISSION
JOHN FRANCIS WADE ARR. PHIL SNEDECOR
O Come, All Ye Faithful
JOHN HENRY HOPKINS JR. ARR. PHIL SNEDECOR
We Three Kings for percussion ensemble
GIOVANNI GABRIELI
Canzon Septimi Toni No. 2
MEL TORMÉ ARR. DAVID HANSON
The Christmas Song
TRADITIONAL ARR. RICHARD ELLIOTT
I Saw Three Ships
JOHN JACOB NILES ARR. DAVID HANSON
I Wonder as I Wander
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
ARR. MICHAEL ALLEN
Suite from The Nutcracker March Russian Dance ("Trepak")
ANTHONY DILORENZO
'Twas the Night Before Christmas
CHRISTOPHER NORTON
Christopher Norton is Professor of Music and Director of Percussion Studies at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to joining the Belmont faculty in 2001, he taught at Western Kentucky University for fourteen years. His bachelor's and master's degrees are from the Eastman School of Music, and his doctorate is from Louisiana State University. Norton performs regularly as a percussionist with Nashville Symphony, Alias Chamber Ensemble, Sympatico Percussion Group, and the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra. Formerly, he performed, recorded, and toured with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Bob Becker Ensemble, and the Jack Daniel’s Silver Cornet Band. He has held core and auxiliary positions with the Rochester Philharmonic, Virginia Symphony, Baton Rouge Symphony, Alabama Symphony, and Eastern Philharmonic.
Norton’s solo marimba album Christopher Norton: Creston Concertino for Marimba features several first edition recordings of twentieth-century American works. In 2011, Alias Chamber Ensemble released a GRAMMY®-nominated recording on the Naxos label that featured music of Gabriela Lena Frank and included
the premier recording of Danza de los Saqsampillos for two marimbas. Norton played percussion with the Nashville Symphony on the GRAMMY® awardwinning recording of the music of Michael Daugherty. In 2012, Norton and his wife Leslie, Principal Horn of the Nashville Symphony, released an album of horn-percussion duos they have commissioned over the past 25 years.
Dr. Norton has given clinics and recitals in Europe and across the United States, most notably as a featured artist at Percussive Arts Society(PAS) International Conventions and Days of Percussion. A past state chapter president of PAS, Norton also served as Chairman of the International Keyboard Percussion Committee for several years. His compositions have been listed on required repertoire lists for international marimba competitions and are published by Alabaster Music, Innovative Percussion, and Pioneer Percussion. He is a Malletech artist.
Also an active orchestral conductor, Norton is Music Director of the Nashville Philharmonic Orchestra. He held a similar post with the Bowling Green Western Symphony Orchestra and has guest conducted the Nashville Symphony, Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Nashville Ballet, Alabama Symphony, and several university orchestras. He was one of five conductors participating in the Nashville Symphony’s performance of Charles Ives’s Universe Symphony in Carnegie Hall.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16 AT 7:30 PM
CODY FRY & NASHVILLE SYMPHONY
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ, conductor
NATHAN DUGGER, guitars
SCOTT MULVAHILL, bass
STEVE GOOLD, drum set
CAITIE BEASLEY, vocals
HALEY FRY, vocals
JASON DYBA, narrator, creative director
JAKE HARTSFIELD, mixing engineer
JACOB PADGETT, lighting designer
Cody Fry's music sounds like the moment in your favorite old flick when the film changes from black-and-white to Technicolor in a rush of emotion. As his orchestration booms, you practically expect a Golden Age romance to unfold
through the narration of his vocals. It's warm enough to make you nostalgic, but Cody always looks forward as a singer, songwriter, composer, producer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist. It's why he's quietly emerged as a phenomenon with hundreds of millions of streams, hundreds of thousands of TikTok creations, and widespread acclaim. Along the way, he's picked up two GRAMMY® Award nominations, an RIAA Certified Gold record, and sold out countless shows.
ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Enrico Lopez-Yañez has quickly established himself as one of the nation’s leading conductors of popular music and become known for his unique style of audience engagement. Lopez-Yañez holds the titled positions of Principal Pops Conductor of the Detroit and Pacific Symphonies, Principal Conductor of Dallas Symphony Presents, and Principal Guest Conductor of Pops at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He previously served as Principal Pops Conductor of the Nashville Symphony for eight seasons.
As a trailblazer in the symphonic world, Lopez-Yañez has premiered dozens of orchestral collaborations with artists including Dolly Parton, Kelsey Ballerini, Portugal. The Man, The Mavericks, Tituss Burgess, and The War & Treaty. Lopez-Yañez has collaborated with a broad spectrum of artists including: Nas, Patti LaBelle, Itzhak Perlman, Kenny Loggins, Stewart Copeland, Toby Keith, Gladys Knight, Ben Folds, and more. As an active composer/arranger his works have been performed by orchestras across North America including the Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, National Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and Toronto Symphony, among many others.
Lopez-Yañez was the recipient of the 2023 “Mexicanos Distinguidos” Award by the Mexican government, an award granted to Mexican citizens living abroad for outstanding career accomplishments in their field. As an advocate for Latin music, he has arranged and produced shows for Latin Fire, Mariachi Los Camperos, and The Three Mexican Tenors, and collaborated with artists including Aida Cuevas, Arturo Sandoval, and Lila Downs.
As Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Symphonica Productions, LLC, Lopez-Yañez curates and leads programs designed to cultivate new audiences. Symphonica’s productions have been performed by major orchestra across North America including the Baltimore Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and many more.
As a producer, composer, and arranger, LopezYañez’s work can be heard on numerous albums including the UNESCO benefit album Action Moves People United and children’s music albums including The Spaceship that Fell in My Backyard, winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Hollywood Music and Media Awards, Family Choice Awards and Kokowanda Bay, winner of a Global Media Award as well as a Parents’ Choice Award where Lopez-Yañez was lauded for his “catchy arrangements” (Parents’ Choice Foundation).
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19 & 20, AT 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21, AT 2:00 PM
NATHAN ASPINALL , conductor
TUCKER BIDDLECOMBE, chorus director
ESTELÍ GOMEZ, soprano
AMANDA CRIDER , mezzo soprano
JAMES LEY, tenor
ENRICO LAGASCA, bass-baritone
Messiah
PART I
Sinfonia
Accompagnato: Comfort ye, my people
Air: Ev’ry valley shall be exalted
Chorus: And the Glory of the Lord
Accompagnato: Thus saith the Lord
Aria: But who may abide the day of His coming
Chorus: And He shall purify
Recitative: Behold, a virgin shall conceive
Air and Chorus: O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion
Accompagnato: For behold, darkness shall cover the earth.
Air: The people that walked in darkness
Chorus: For unto us a Child is Born
Pifa (Pastoral Symphony)
Recitative: There were shepherds abiding in the field
Accompagnato: And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them
Recitative: And the angel said unto them
Accompagnato: And suddenly, there was with the angel
Chorus: Glory to God in the Highest
Air: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion
Recitative: Then shall the eyes of the blind be open'd
Air (or Duet): He shall feed His flock like a shepherd
Chorus: His yoke is easy, and His burthen is light
INTERMISSION
Choral performances are generously supported by C.B. Ragland Company.
Chorus: Behold the Lamb of God
Air: He was despised
Chorus: Surely He hath bourne our griefs
Chorus: And with His stripes we are healed
Chorus: All we like sheep have gone astray
Accompagnato: All they that see Him, laugh Him to scorn
Chorus: He trusted in God
Accompagnato: Thy rebuke hath broken His heart
Arioso: Behold and see if there be if there be any sorrow
Accompagnato: He was cut off out of the land of the living
Air: But Thou didst not leave His soul in Hell
Chorus: Let all the angels of God worship Him
Air (Version A: Bass): Why do the nations so furiously rage
Air: Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron
Chorus: Hallelujah
Air: I know that my Redeemer liveth
Chorus: Since by man came death
Accompagnato: Behold, I tell you a mystery
Air: The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be rais'd
Air: If God be for us
Chorus: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
This concert will last approximately two hours, 40 minutes, including a 20 -minute intermission.
George Frideric Handel
Composed: Handel composed the first version of Messiah in just a little over three weeks, between August 22 and September 14, 1741, but continued to make revisions to the score—in some cases adding new arias—for subsequent revivals of the work.
The son of a barber-surgeon, Georg Friedrich Händel grew up in Halle, in present-day central Germany (only a couple hours’ drive from Johann Sebastian Bach’s birthplace in Eisenach). Drawn to distant lands, he spent formative years of his youth in Italy and then, in 1712, moving to England. As an immigrant, he became known as George Frideric Handel and remained in his adopted home of London for the rest of his life. Yet Handel always occupied a curious middle ground—celebrated as a national treasure yet unmistakably foreign, at times referred to as “the Saxon.” That distance may have sharpened his gift for synthesis, helping him fuse Italian brilliance, German craftsmanship, and English choral tradition into a style the nation would later call its own. Handel attracted powerful royal and aristocratic patrons and experienced both sensational successes and crushing failures as a musical entrepreneur, managing the production of a prolific series of Italian operas that he marketed to his English audience.
When the operatic style that had advanced his reputation went out of fashion, Handel was compelled to reinvent himself, shifting his focus to the English oratorio—essentially an opera without costumes or stagecraft. Although he still had a few more operatic projects up his sleeve, by the time he composed Messiah in 1741, Handel had ceased writing Italian operas altogether. He continued to compose oratorios until, by 1751, growing blindness made it impossible for him to complete his final work, Jephtha. Messiah thus belongs to a watershed moment in Handel’s career, when he was turning away from the tragic operas that had first made him a sensation in London (beginning with Rinaldo in 1711). His Italian operas typically retold stories from mythology or history—a genre calculated to showcase the star singers of the era, complete with spectacular stage effects. By the late 1730s, the high costs of production made opera an unsustainable business model, and the English public’s musical tastes had changed.
In Handel’s English variation on the oratorio format he inherited, moral uplift is combined with the
entertainment value of oper—but without the expense. Over the centuries, Messiah ’s success caused it to eclipse Handel’s other dramatic works and cemented its reputation as the quintessential English oratorio.
Yet both Handel and his librettist, Charles Jennens, took a risk with Messiah, which tells its story in a very different, indirect way compared with the narratives of the composer’s operas and other oratorios. Its dramatization of the life of Jesus and use of actual Biblical texts in a theatrical context even sparked a minor culture war. The controversy raged for several years in London, despite the acclaim the work had received when it was first introduced to Dublin audiences at the close of the 1741/42 season.
Because Messiah evoked Jesus within a secular genre performed “for diversion and amusement,” some accused it of blasphemy. These complaints targeted the circumstances of its presentation at London’s Covent Garden (the city’s entertainment hub) rather than Handel’s music itself. A landmark performance in 1750 for the benefit of London’s newly built Foundling Hospital, however, transformed public perception. The concert, greatly admired, inaugurated an annual tradition of charity performances, with Handel conducting or attending every year until his death in 1759.
Thus began Messiah ’s association with annual performances devoted to benevolent causes. These concerts raised considerable sums for the Foundling Hospital, established by Thomas Coram to serve abandoned and orphaned children. (In his will, Handel donated the original score to the institution.) Notably, these performances always took place in the spring, around Easter. Only after Handel’s death did the oratorio become linked to the Christmas season—the focus of Part One—especially in the United States.
Handel also introduced changes in several of these revivals, mostly substituting or rewriting arias to suit the singers available. Even the Dublin premiere differed somewhat from the score Handel had written beforehand. For the 1750 revival, for instance, since the celebrated castrato Gaetano Guadagni was available, Handel recast the aria “But who may abide the day of his coming” (heard here for alto) to include a dazzlingly virtuosic setting of the phrase “a refiner’s fire.”
Messiah has proved remarkably adaptable to later interpretations, from large-scale Victorian performances to the acclaimed 1992 album Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration , which recasts the score through styles ranging from blues and R&B to hip-hop.
Jennens had previously collaborated with Handel and likely compiled the text for Israel in Egypt (1739), which anticipates Messiah ’s method of arranging Biblical passages. Yet the process is less straightforward here. Jennens—a wealthy patron but an outsider, disaffected with contemporary English politics—juxtaposed extracts from both Old and New Testaments to chart the overarching narrative of Christian redemption. Rather than recounting the life of Jesus, Messiah concerns the idea of divinity becoming manifest in human history (hence the absence of the definite article—“the Messiah”—in its title).
There is little direct impersonation of characters. The narrative is suggestive rather than literal, and can be puzzling to listeners unfamiliar with the events of Jesus’s life that it implies. Jennens divides the text into three “parts,” much like the three acts of a Baroque opera. Part One centers on prophecy and the Nativity, ending with Jesus’s miracles—the portion most closely tied to Christmas. Following its message of hope comes Part Two, a condensed Passion story of sacrifice. Part Three concludes with the implications of Christ’s redemption of humanity from the fall of Adam.
Handel’s music expresses the universal emotions underlying each stage of this redemptive journey. Above all, he was a man of the theatre, and his gift for shaping mood is everywhere evident. In opera he does this through arias for individual characters; in Messiah, the chorus takes centre stage, allowing far greater musical variety. Part One establishes a pattern of recitative, aria, and chorus, which Handel then varies freely in the later parts.
He draws on the full spectrum of international styles of his day—elaborate Northern European counterpoint, Italian lyricism, majestic French rhythms, and straightforward English choruses. The orchestration, though economical, yields a striking range of color. Notice how the trumpets remain silent through Part One until “Glory to God,” and are held back again until the famous “Hallelujah!” chorus that ends Part Two. (That chorus, incidentally, celebrates not the Resurrection but the triumph of redemption.)
Consider too the psychological scope Handel explores: the fathomless darkness of humanity’s waiting for a savior; the gentle calm of the brief instrumental “Pastoral Symphony” (Pifa), evoking the shepherds’ music; and the dancing exuberance
of “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion” (in the 12/8 version heard here). Handel’s gift for “word-painting” shines through—listen to the “straying” lines of “All we like sheep”—but he also plants subtler turns of meaning, as when that same chorus suddenly veers into the minor to suggest the cost of human failure.
Amid all this variety, by the end of the briefer Part Three Handel has taken us on a journey that anticipates the symphonies of Beethoven—a passage from darkness to enlightenment and, at last, to triumph. It’s hard to imagine anything topping the “Hallelujah!” chorus—but Handel somehow does. He follows it with music of radiant conviction: the shining call of “The trumpet shall sound” and, finally, a great choral “Amen.” As the voices intertwine like strands of light, Handel gives us the impression, however brief, that music not only can depict but can even change the world.
In addition to the four vocal soloists and four-part chorus, the Novello edition used in these performances is scored for 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings, and continuo; Maestro Aspinall has opted to supplement the Martin Foundation Concert Organ with a small chamber organ.
− Thomas May is the Nashville Symphony's program annotator.
ACCOMPAGNATO: (Tenor)
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness; prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
(Isaiah 40: 1-3)
AIR: (Tenor)
Ev'ry valley shall be exalted, and ev'ry moutain and hill made low; the crooked straight and the rough places plain.
(Isaiah 40: 4)
CHORUS:
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
(Isaiah 40: 5)
ACCOMPAGNATO: (Bass)
Thus saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts: Yet once a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.
And I will shake all nations; and the desire of all nations shall come.
(Haggai 2: 6-7)
The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the Covenant, whom you delight in; behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.
(Malachi 3: 1)
ARIA: (Bass)
But who may abide the day of His coming, and who shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner's fire.
(Malachi 3: 2)
CHORUS:
And He shall purify the sons of Levi, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.
(Malachi 3: 3)
RECITATIVE: (Alto)
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call his name Emmanuel, “God with us.”
(Isaiah 7: 14; Matthew 1: 23)
AIR AND CHORUS: (Alto)
O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain. O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, behold your god!
(Isaiah 40: 9)
Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
(Isaiah 60: 1)
(Chorus)
O thou that tellest. . . etc.
ACCOMPAGNATO: (Bass)
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.
And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
(Isaiah 60: 2-3)
AIR: (Bass)
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
(Isaiah 9: 2)
CHORUS:
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
(Isaiah 9: 6)
PIFA ( PASTORAL SYMPHONY)
RECITATIVE: (Soprano)
There were shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night.
(Luke 2: 8)
ACCOMPAGNATO: (Soprano)
And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.
(Luke 2: 9)
RECITATIVE: (Soprano)
And the angel said unto them: "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."
(Luke 2: 10-11)
ACCOMPAGNATO: (Soprano)
And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying:
(Luke 2: 13)
CHORUS:
"Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, good will towards men."
(Luke 2: 14)
AIR: (Soprano)
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, thy King cometh unto thee; He is the righteous Saviour, and He shall speak peace unto the heathen. Rejoice greatly. . . da capo
(Zechariah 9: 9-10)
RECITATIVE: (Alto)
Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.
(Isaiah 35: 5-6)
AIR (OR DUET): (Soprano & Alto)
He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; and He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
(Isaiah 40: 11)
Come unto Him, all ye that labour, come unto Him that are heavy laden, and He will give you rest. Take his yoke upon you, and learn of Him, for He is meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
(Matthew 11: 28-29)
CHORUS:
His yoke is easy, and His burthen is light.
(Matthew 11: 30)
CHORUS:
Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.
(John 1: 29)
AIR: (Alto)
He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
(Isaiah 53: 3)
He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off His hair: He hid not His face from shame and spitting.
He was despised. . . da capo
(Isaiah 50: 6)
CHORUS:
Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows! He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him.
(Isaiah 53: 4-5)
CHORUS:
And with His stripes we are healed.
(Isaiah 53: 5)
CHORUS:
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
(Isaiah 53: 6)
ACCOMPAGNATO: (Tenor)
All they that see Him laugh Him to scorn; they shoot out their lips, and shake their heads, saying:
(Psalm 22: 7)
CHORUS:
"He trusted in God that He would deliver Him; let Him deliver Him, if He delight in Him."
(Psalm 22: 8)
ACCOMPAGNATO: (Tenor)
Thy rebuke hath broken His heart: He is full of heaviness. He looked for some to have pity on Him, but there was no man, neither found He any to comfort him.
(Psalm 69: 20)
ARIOSO: (Soprano or Tenor)
Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto His sorrow.
(Lamentations 1: 12)
ACCOMPAGNATO: (Soprano or Tenor)
He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgressions of Thy people was He stricken.
(Isaiah 53: 8)
AIR: (Tenor)
But Thou didst not leave His soul in hell; nor didst Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption.
(Psalm 16: 10)
CHORUS: Let all the angels of God worship Him.
(Hebrews 1: 6)
AIR: (Bass)
Why do the nations so furiously rage together, and why do the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against His anointed. (Psalm 2: 1-2)
AIR: (Tenor)
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
(Psalm 2: 9)
CHORUS:
Hallelujah: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
(Revelation 19: 6)
The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.
(Revelation 11: 15)
King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. (Revelation 19: 16)
AIR: (Soprano)
I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.
(Job 19: 25-26)
For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep.
(I Corinthians 15: 20)
CHORUS:
Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
(I Corinthians 15: 21-22)
ACCOMPAGNATO: (Bass)
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
(I Corinthians 15: 51-52)
AIR: (Bass)
The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. The trumpet. . . da capo
(I Corinthians 15: 52-53)
AIR: (Soprano)
If God be for us, who can be against us?
(Romans 8: 31)
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is at the right hand of God, who makes intercession for us.
(Romans 8: 33-34)
CHORUS:
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever.
Amen.
(Revelation 5: 12-14)
ESTELÍ
soprano
GOMEZ
Praised for her "clear, bright voice" ( New York Times ) and "artistry that belies her young years” (Kansas City Metropolis), soprano Estelí Gomez is quickly gaining recognition as a stylish interpreter of early and contemporary repertoires. In January 2014, she was awarded a GRAMMY® Award with contemporary octet Roomful of Teeth for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. In November 2011, she received first prize in the Canticum Gaudium International Early Music Vocal Competition in Poznan, Poland. Estelí can be heard on the soundtrack of Lena Dunham's 2022 film Catherine Called Birdy , Seattle Symphony’s 2017 recording of Nielsen’s Symphony No. 3, the first track of Silkroad Ensemble's GRAMMY® Award-winning 2016 album Sing Me Home, and Roomful of Teeth's self-titled debut album, for which composer Caroline Shaw's Partita was awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize. Highlights of the season include recording a Spanish translation of Handel's Messiah with Bach Collegium
AMANDA CRIDER
mezzo soprano
Mezzo-soprano Amanda
Crider has been recognized for her “gleaming vocalism” (Boston Globe), “star acting” (Urban Milwaukee), and “superbly clear diction and warmly burnished timbre” (South Florida Classical Review). In demand for performances of classical and contemporary opera alike, Crider created the role of Alma in Keeril Makan and Jay Scheib’s Persona in its world premiere with the Beth Morrison Projects and later at LA Opera, about which the New York Times remarked, “Amanda Crider made a winsome, vulnerable, and when the story turns dark, wildly volatile Alma,” and San Francisco Classical Voice declared, “Crider’s performance was a tour-de-force for its sustained vocal luster, dramatic variation, and sheer amount of singing.”
Performances in the 2025/26 season include Mezzo Soloist with the Nashville Symphony in Handel's Messiah, Opera Southwest and New Music Symphonic
San Diego; the world premiere of chamber opera Dreams Have No Borders in Ashland, Oregon; solo appearances with Orchestra Iowa, Madison Bach Musicians, Spire Chamber Ensemble, Sheboygan Symphony, and the Early Music Latin America Festival in El Paso, Texas; performances at the Washington National Cathedral, Cathedral Church of the Advent Birmingham, and Epiphany Parish of Seattle; artist residencies at Avaloch Farms, University of Oregon Eugene, and UNC Greensboro; and concerts at the Barbican and Baryshnikov Arts Center, with additional tours throughout Europe with Roomful of Teeth. Roomful's third studio album, Rough Magic, received two GRAMMY® Award nominations for 2024.
Estelí teaches at Lawrence University as assistant professor of voice, in addition to continuing her work as a performer. Originally from Watsonville, California, Estelí received her Bachelor of Arts with honors in music from Yale College, and Master of Music from McGill University, studying with Sanford Sylvan. She is also a proud member of Beyond Artists, a coalition of artists who donate a percentage of their concert fees to organizations they care about. She is currently donating to RAICES and the Texas Civil Rights Project.
Chorus in Mozart's Mass in C Minor, and Bach Festival Society of Winter Park in Bach's St. John Passion. In addition, she will make multiple appearances with the GRAMMY® Award-nominated ensemble Seraphic Fire and Bach Vocal Artists in Orlando. She also celebrates Opera Orlando's 10th anniversary season as Mezzo Soloist in A Decade of Divas.
Crider was a grant recipient from the Pittsburgh Concert Society and a finalist in both the Joy in Singing Debut Artist Competition and the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition. She was a finalist in the José Iturbi International Voice Competition, the 2nd Place Winner in the Shreveport Opera Singer of the Year Competition, Recipient of the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition David and Ingrid Kosowsky Award, Finalist in the Oratorio Society of New York Vocal Competition and Center for Contemporary Opera Competition, and a Recipient of a Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation. Crider was a 2022 Alumni Enterprise Award from Music Academy of the West and is the Executive Director of Roomful of Teeth.
JAMES LEY tenor
James Ley is an Americanborn tenor and graduate of the Juilliard School’s Opera Studies programme. A finalist in the 2022 Operalia Competition, he has been praised for his “pure tone and innocent expressiveness” and “lovely legato line and silvery tenor.”
Since joining the ensemble at Semperoper Dresden last season, Ley has performed Tamino ( Die Zauberflöte ), Baron Lummer ( Intermezzo ), Arturo (Lucia di Lammermoor), and Jonathan (Saul) and in the current season, returns as Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail ), Don Ottavio ( Don Giovanni), and Tybalt (Roméo et Juliette).
Recent operatic highlights include Váňa Kudrjaš (Káťa Kabanová) at Bayerische Staatsoper under Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Vaudémont (Iolanta) at Oper Bern led by Nicholas Carter, Ferrando ( Così fan tutte ) at Opéra National de Bordeaux and Gran Teatre del Liceu conducted by Marc Minkowski, and the Messenger (Aida) under Zubin Mehta at Münchener Opernfestspiele.
As an esteemed concert artist, Ley has performed Scriabin's Symphony No.1 with Danish National
ENRICO LAGASCA baritone
Filipino-American bassbaritone Enrico Lagasca is a highly sought-after vocalist, having performed in more than a hundred oratorios, contemporary works, opera roles, song cycles, and collections. In the 2024/25 season, Enrico made highly anticipated debuts with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra. Recent engagements include his debut at BachFest Leipzig with Bach Collegium San Diego and performances with the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik, Ars Lyrica Houston, American Classical Orchestra, Experiential Orchestra, and Washington Bach Consort, among others. In 2023,
Symphony Orchestra under Fabio Luisi, Bruckner's Te Deum with Atlanta Symphony and Nathalie Stutzmann, Britten's Nocturne with Aarhus Symphony Orchestra under Christoph Koncz, Beethoven's Symphony No.9 with Opéra de Limoges and Robert Tuohy, and Mendelssohn's Elias with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk under Howard Arman. James Ley is a regular performer of Handel's Messiah most recently with Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. He joined Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Edward Gardner at Edinburgh International Festival as Second Nazarene in Salome, recorded by Chandos Records. In the 2025/26 season, James Ley returns to Danish National Symphony Orchestra for Szymanowski's Symphony No. 3 under Thomas Søndergård and heads to Nashville for a seasonal Messiah under Nathan Aspinall.
Ley is a former Opera Foundation scholar at Bayerische Staatsoper Opernstudio, with wider training at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence Académie, Salzburg Young Artist Project, and Internationale Meistersinger Akademie. He has participated in masterclasses with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Renée Fleming.
he was resident soloist for the Carmel Bach Festival. Praised for his “smooth, dark bass voice” ( Classics Today ), he is featured on six GRAMMY ® Awardnominated recordings. “Bass-baritone Enrico Lagasca summoned nearly as much volume as everyone else onstage put together,” (Tim Smith). His voice has been described as “an oratorio voice that strikes fear of God in the hearts of the audience,” (Ludwig van Toronto) and his performance of Bach St. Matthew Passion at Saint Thomas Church was hailed as “an outpouring of devotion and grief as elegant as it was moving,” (Seen and Heard International). Fanfare noted his recent recording of Bach St. Matthew Passion as "completely convincing; the sheer joy exuded by the bass aria “Gebt mir meinen Jesum wieder!” with bass soloist Enrico Lagasca in fine form, with zero smudging to his melismas; Lagasca shines again towards the end in his aria, “Mache dich, mein Herze, rein,” and Gramophone citing Lagasca’s “warm bass voice”.
chorus director
David B. Thomas , chorus p resident | Ally Hard, p resident elect
Lucy Alegria
Dana Amindaneshpour
Mary Biddlecombe
Maddie Brasher
Stephanie Breiwa
Julia Brown
Miranda Burnett
Megan Calgaro
Bethany Cárdenas
Angela Carr Forsythe
Sara Jean Curtiss
Katie Doyle
Amy Frogge
Gillian Garnowski
Kelli Gauthier
Grace J. Guill
Ally Hard
Emily Harrison
Heaven Howard
Vanessa Jackson
Amy Jarman
Jiana Kevilus
Megann Knapp
Leda Knowles
Ashleyn Lagerberg
Jean Miller
Abigail Orr
Emily Packard
Lucia Palladino
Angela Pasquini
Nicole Rivera
Veronica Selby
Sana Selemon
Kristine Smith
Renita J. Smith-Crittendon
Megan Starkey
Alexis Alduenda
Tessa Berger
Taylor Bradley
Sydney Braunstein
Joyce Brittain
Sarah Bronchetti
Vinéecia Buchanan
Cathi Carmack
Sara Chang
Kelsey Christian
Lisa Cooper
Brianna Corbett
Carla Davis
Kat Dennis
Bethany DiSantis
Peggy Lin Duthie
Michele East
Becky Evans-Young
Sierra Frazier
Peyton Garrison
Elizabeth Gilliam
Bevin Gregory
Thomas Andrew Butler
Stephen Calgaro
Daniel Capparella
Taylor Chadwick
Vincent Davis
Vic Esparza Morales
Joe A. Fitzpatrick
Andrew Galea
Peter Groenwald
Alan Henderson
Kory Henkel
James E. Howell
Gunnar Hudson
Ron Jensen
Ben Kahan
David Lowe
Damon Maida
Joshua Mellor
Dan Arterburn
Michael Beckhart
Christian Bumpous
Carson Burch
Mitch Crain
Dustin Derryberry
Kyle Duckworth
Mark Filosa
Stuart Garber
Timothy Goodenough
Duane Hamilton
Andrew Hard
Jonah Hathaway
Jason Jedlička
Jacob Laan
John Legan
Ryan Li
Bill Loyd
Zayne Lumpkin
Rob Mahurin
Andy Miller
Chris Mixon
Alyson Haley
Leah Handelsman
Emily Sharnick
Amanda Hopkins
Mallory Howard
Sidney Hyde
Jung Ae Kim
Stephanie Kraft
Brittany McDonald
Kirsten McGlone
Alisha Menard
Marie Stennett
Angela Stenzel
Clair Susong
Leigh Sutherland
Marva Swann
Cassidy Van Amburg
Katherine Wehrenberg
Sylvia R. Wynn
McClain Kitchens Ziegler
Eva María Monroy
Madalynne Putz
Stacy L. Reed
Naudimar Ricardo Arnosa
Bonnie Ritchie
Gray Shiverick
Deanna Talbert
Clara Warford
Devin Mueller
Dale Nickell
Ryan Norris
Chris Riggins
Derrick Rohl
Kevin Salter
AJ Sermarini
Zach Shrout
Daniel Sissom
Eddie Smith
Larry Smith
Carlos Solano
Nathan Stroud
Mark Sullivan
Alex Tinianow
Nathan Wildes
Jonathan Yeaworth
Phil Zuehlke
Steve Myers
Alec Oziminski
Steve Prichard
Nate Pylant
Michael Rahimzadeh
Austin Reid
Raphael Reyes
Zachary Sheinfeld
Dan Silva
Merv Snider
Larry Strachan
Josh Sulkin
David B. Thomas
Nic Townsend
Miles Troxler
Addison Waege
C. Brian Warford
Quinn Welder
Eric Wiuff
David Wyckoff
Jeff Burnham , accompanist * recognizes section leaders and officers
Gifts of $50,000+
Mr. Russell W. Bates & Mr. Benjamin Scott
Mr. & Mrs. Jack O. Bovender Jr.
Mr. Michael Carter, Sr. & Mrs. Pamela Carter
Mr. & Mrs. Kevin W. Crumbo
Mrs. Martha Rivers Ingram
Donna & Ralph Korpman
Mr. & Mrs. Jonathan A. McNabb
Drs. Mark & Nancy Peacock
Mrs. Ben R. Rechter
Mr. & Mrs. James C. Seabury III
Gifts of $25,000 - $49,999
Anonymous
Mr. & Mrs. Dennis Bottorff
Mrs. J. C. Bradford Jr.
Ann & Frank* Bumstead
Ms. Lucie W. Cammack
Mary & Joseph Cavarra
Mr. & Mrs. Robert W. Chasanoff
Mr. Jason P. Somerville & Mr. Eric Cook
Connie & Nick Deidiker
Andrew Horowitz
Mr. and Mrs. R. Milton Johnson
Dr. & Mrs. Howard S. Kirshner
Mr. Mark E. Lopez & Mr. Patrick J. Boggs
Mr. & Mrs. David K. Morgan
James L. & Victoria L. Rooney
Mr. & Mrs. Rick Scarola
Mr. and Mrs. Christopher J. Simovich
Mr. Ronald P. Soltman, in memory of Judith Cram
Mr. and Mrs. James H. Todd
Mr. & Mrs. William H. Wade
Gifts of $15,000 - $24,999
Anonymous
Dr. & Mrs. Frank H. Boehm
Dr. & Mrs. André L. Churchwell
David & Starling Clark
Estate of Elizabeth F. Cormier
Hilton & Sallie Dean
Robert J. Dennis
The Ann M. Duffer Family Foundation
Ms. Gail Danner Greil
Brenda & David Griffin
Vicki & Rick Horne
Mx. Morgan Karr & Gabriel Starner
Larry & Leiyan Keele
Mr. Neil Krugman & Ms. Leona Pratt
Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence Lipman
Ellen Harrison Martin & Gerald Martin Nadeau
Richard & Sharalena Miller
Anne & Peter Neff
Victoria & William Pao
Mr. & Mrs. Philip M. Pfeffer
Drs. Warren & Elisabeth Sandberg
Michael & Grace Sposato
The Harris Widener Family Fund
Gifts of $10,000 - $14,999
Anonymous
Mr. & Mrs. Stephen M. Abelman
Reed & Dianne Arvin
Grace & Carl Awh
Sallie & John Bailey
Blevins, Inc.
Mr. & Mrs. Pat Campbell
Anita & Larry Cash
Jay & Ellen Clayton
Mrs. William Sherrard Cochran Sr.
Dorit & Donald* Cochron
Greg & Collie Daily
Dr. Daniel Diermeier
Mr. & Mrs. Gerald M. Farina
Tom & Judy Foster
Tommy & Julie Frist
Cathey & Wilford Fuqua
Allis Dale & John Gillmor
Mr. & Mrs. Frederick Sutton Grace
Mr. Eric Greer
The Nashville Symphony is deeply grateful to the following individuals who contributed to the 2024/25 concert season and services to the community through their generous gifts to the Annual Fund and support for Special Events. Donors through July 31, 2025.
Mr. & Mrs. F. David Haas
Emily Humphreys
Lou & Elizabeth Jennings
Mr. Robert J. Turner & Mr. Jay Jones
Robin & Bill King
Sarah & Walter Knestrick
Dr. & Mrs. George R. Lee
Mr. & Mrs. Denis Lovell
Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. McCabe Jr.
Jamison & Heather Monroe
Anne Mosley
Mr. & Mrs. Lee F. Noel
Peggy & Hal Pennington
Keith & Deborah Pitts
Jeanie Rittenberry
Anne & Joe* Russell
Mrs. J. Ronald Scott
Teresa Sebastian & Steven Tunis
Leon & Leslie Shivamber
Dr. Neil & Ruth Smith
Mr. & Mrs. Mark Tillinger
Christi & Jay Turner
Alan D. & Jan L. Valentine
Ms. Amanda Warner
Betty R. Waters
Jerry & Ernie Williams
Gifts of $5,000 - $9,999
Anonymous
Oran & Sara Aaronson
Keith Arendsee
Steven Attorri
Brian & Beth Bachmann
Ms. Jane B. Bachmann
David A. & Stephanie Bailey
Mrs. Melinda S. & Dr. Jeffrey R. Balser
Thomas Barrett & Belinda A. Berry
Frank & Dina Basile
Craig & Angela Becker
Dr. and Mrs. Randy Bellows
Mr. & Mrs. Douglas Bennett Jr.
Ms. Pamela Bollinger
Mr. & Mrs. Richard M. Bracken
Mr. & Mrs. Martin S. Brown Jr.
Branden Leslie Burkey
Ms. Heather C. Burroughs
Richard Burroughs
Mr. Benjamin Byrd IV
Mike & Jane Ann Cain
Chuck & Sandra Cagle
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Calderon
Mr. & Mrs. Fred J. Cassetty
William and Sharon Cheek
Mr. & Mrs. Cooper Chilton
Mr. & Mrs. Charles W. Cook Jr.
Brian & Haden Cook
Kathy & Scott Corlew
David Coulam & Lucy A. Visceglia
Mr. & Mrs. Roy J. Covert
Mr. & Mrs. Justin Dell Crosslin
Drs. Michael S. and Rowena D. Cuffe
Mr. & Mrs. J. Bradford Currie
Mr. & Mrs. Robert S. Doochin
Travis & Robin Dunn
Mr. and Mrs. Burton Dye
Mr. Stephen R. Eaves
Mr. & Mrs. Jere Mann Ervin
Dr. & Mrs. Jeffrey B. Eskind
Laurie & Steven Eskind
Ms. Marilyn Falcone
Alice Fitzgibbon
Bill & Tracy Frist
Ms. Marilyn L. Garcia
Dot & Luther Gause
Frank & Louise Grant
Jim & Paula Grout
Stephen & Marilynn Halas
Carolyn N. and Terry W. Hamby
Dr. & Mrs. Daniel Hatef
Mr. & Mrs. J. Michael Hayes
Gregory T. Hersh
Mr. & Mrs. John Huie
Mr. & Mrs. David B. Ingram
Yi and Henry Ingram
Kate and Hank Ingram
Ms. Virginia Ingram and Mr. Chris Garchitorena
Dr. & Mrs. Abdallah M. Isa
Donald L. Jackson
G. Brian Jackson & Roger E. Moore
Trent Janos & Carine D'Angelo
Keith Johnson
Angela Bostelman-Kaczmarek & Tom Kaczmarek
Mr. & Mrs. T. K. Kimbrell
Ms. Diane Klaiber
Kevin & May Lavender
Bradley & Megan Lawrence
Dr. Michelle Law
Mr. Joseph Y. Lee & Ms. Erica Fetterman
Mr. and Mrs. Terry Logan
Jim & Debbie Lundy
Erin L. Luper
Red & Shari Martin
Mr. and Mrs. Dewitt Kerry McCluggage
Priscilla McKeehan
Garry & Sheila McNabb
John & Crispin Menefee
Edward D. & Linda F. Miles
Mr. David K. Mitchell
Joseph & Julia Moore
Bill & Cindy Morelli
Mr. Devin R. Mueller
Matt & Rhonda Mulroy
James & Patricia Munro
Dr. & Mrs. Turner Nashe Jr.
Mr. & Mrs. Larry D. Odom
Courtney N. Orr
Doria Panvini
Mr. & Mrs. Laurence M. Papel
Ms. Donna Pavlick
Alexandria Payton
Mr. Timothy Pearcy and Ms. Glory Crampton
Paul & Gerda Resch
Ms. Kathy R. Robbins
Ms. Melanie Robinson
Carol & John T. Rochford
Mr. & Mrs. David L. Rollins
Rebecca Rouland
Ms. Mary Frances Rudy
Kenneth & Joan Sands
Dr. Norm Scarborough & Ms. Kimberly Hewell
Dr. & Mrs. Stephen Seale
The Shields Family Foundation
Mrs. Jay E. Shuman
Mr. & Mrs. Irvin Small
Mr. & Mrs. Brian S. Smallwood
Esther Smith
Ms. Maggie Smith
K.C. & Mary Smythe
Stephen Franklin Sparks
Clark Spoden & Norah Buikstra
W. Lee & Jane St. Clair
Dr. Steve A. Hyman & Mr. Mark Lee Taylor
Ms. Meril Temlock
Mr. & Mrs. David B. Thomas Sr.
Ms. Janice E. Ticich
Rick & Barbara. Turner
Tyler Walker
Mrs. Lisa W. Wheeler
Mrs. Barbara Bransford White
Ms. Memorie K. White
Mr. Milton White
Dean & Donna Whittle
Mrs. Gail Williams
Ira and Elaine Work
Shirley Zeitlin
Mr. Craig Zimberg & Ms. Tara Sawdon
Gifts of $3,000 - $4,999
Anonymous
Bill & Shelley Alexander
Dr. & Mrs. Gregg P. Allen
Jeremy & Rebecca Atack
Mrs. Sallie Ballantine Bailey
David Baldwin & Melissa K. Moss
J.E. & Doris Barlow
Ned Bates & Brigette Anschuetz
David & Holly Baulch
Mr. Lee A. Beaman
Lewis & Denise Bellardo
Mike & Kathy Benson
While we strive to recognize all our donors at the appropriate levels, mistakes can happen. If you believe an error has been made, please contact giving@nashvillesymphony.org.
Dr. Eric & Elaine Berg
Mrs. Jean Bills
Celia Applegate & David Blackbourn
Randolph & Elaine Blake
Dennis & Tammy Boehms
Mr.* & Mrs. Roger Borchers
Jamey Bowen & Norman Wells
Robert & Barbara Braswell
Dr. Robert J. Brewer
Jacqueline Brody
Mr. & Mrs. Scott Bryant
Branden Leslie Burkey
Sykes & Ann Cargile
David L. Carlton
Tom & Kathi Carr
Robin & Robert Carroll
Zane Cavender
David & Pam Chamberlin
Mr. Alex Chan & Ms. Jennie E. Stumpf
Erica & Doug Chappell
Ms. Carol J. Childress
Catherine Chitwood
Cynthia R. Cohen
Ed & Pat Cole
Teresa Corlew & Wes Allen
Roger & Barbara Cottrell
Paula Anne Covington
Kelly Crockett
Mr. M. Bradshaw Darnall III
Mr. & Mrs. William B. Davis
Beatrice deVegvar
Myrtianne P. Downs
Herbert & Kathleen Duer
Mr. and Mrs. Steve Dugas
Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Eck
Megan & Steven Epstein
Sherie Edwards
Mrs. Ethel T. Fennell
Mr. Brian T. Fitzpatrick
Mr. & Mrs. Steven B. Franklin
Mrs. Karyn M. Frist
Dr. Ronald E. Galbraith & Mrs. Faith H. Galbraith
Carlene Hunt & Marshall Gaskins
Bruce Gill & James Turner
Mr. Norman B. Gillis
Mr. Amos R. Glass
Mr. Leonard C. Glass Sr.
Andrew & Alene Gnyp
Lisa & Douglas Gregg
Karen & Daniel Grossman
Cuong Ly & Gina Guo
Mrs. Robbie J. Hampton
Mr. & Mrs. John Burton Hayes
Judith & Richard Hays
Steve Hesson
Ms. Sylvia Hix
Ms. Elizabeth Hogan
Aurelia L. Holden
Mr. & Mrs. Donald J. Israel
Mr. & Mrs. Clay T. Jackson
Mr. & Mrs. John F. Jacques
Christopher Kamer
Patrick B. Kennedy & Jamie S. Amos
The Kirkland Foundation/Chris & Beth Kirkland
Ms. Diane Klaiber
Mr. & Mrs. David J. Klintworth
Mr. & Mrs. Michael A. Koban Jr.
Kimberly S. Kraft-McLemore
Dr. & Mrs. Mike LaDouceur
Bobbie Jean Lamar
Mr. Edward Lanquist
Martha & Larry Larkin
Mr. and Mrs. Shawn Lehman-Grimes
John & Mary Leinard
Mr. & Mrs. Jeremy R. Lemmon
Ted & Anne Lenz
Douglas & Mizuho Leonard
Alice & John Lindahl
Mr. George Luscombe II
David & Sarah Mansouri
Joelle Maynard
Mrs. Sharon L. McMahan
Dr. Mark & Mrs. Theresa Messenger
Ingrid Meszoely MD
Mr. & Mrs. S. Moharreri
Bill & Cindy Morelli
Mr. Wayne E. Morris
Dr. & Mrs. Kelvin A. Moses
Johnny Mutina & Earl Lamons
Michael & Patricia Nelson
Mr. & Mrs. Carl A. Neuhoff Jr.
Mrs. Gwen Noe
Dr. Agatha L. Nolen
Mr. & Mrs. Robert J. Notestine
Ashley & Aaron Odom
Mr. & Mrs. Bond E. Oman
David & Pamela Palmer
Susan Holt & Mark Patterson
Lisa Peebles
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Ross Pepper
Dr. and Mrs. Philip Perdue
Melinda C. Phillips
Robert & Laura Pittman
Carol Armes & Bob Pitz
Mr. Jason E. Poole
Mr. & Mrs. W. Edward Ramage
Neil & Ella Redkevitch
Mr. Allen Reynolds
Dr. William D. Richie
Mr. & Mrs. Don Ricketts
Jan Riven
Dr. Amy Robertson & Mr. Carl Marshall
Ms. Judith A. Robison
Anne Roos
Ms. Sara L. Rosson & Ms. Nancy Menke
Brady Rowe
Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Ruth Sr.
Daniel Schafer & Melissa Rose
Mr. & Mrs. Todd Seifferth
Jennifer Shinall
Mrs. Martin E. Simmons
K.C. & Mary Smythe
Nan E. Speller & Dan Eisenstein
Mr. & Mrs. Thomas H. Stearns
Dr. Maura A. Stevenson
Barbara Newton & Kent Stewart
Robert & Virginia Stewart
Suzanne W. Storar
Dr. Eric & Mrs. Julie Sumner
Owen Thorne
Mr. & Mrs. Jerry Thursby
Martha J. Trammell
Mila & Bill Truan
Mr. Steve Turner*
John Vayda
Larry & Brenda Vickers
Veronica Votypka Mclean
Mr. & Mrs. John E. Waggener Jr.
Kris & G. G. Waggoner
Mike & Elaine Walker
Dr. & Mrs. Mark Wathen
Sam R. McColl & Christy A. Watkins
Talmage M. Watts & Debra Greenspan Watts
Dr. Carroll Van West & Dr. Mary
Hoffschwelle
Mr. James L. White
Mr. Lanny Willis
Wiens & McFadden Household
Dr. Artmas L. Worthy
Mr. & Mrs. D. Randall Wright
Mr. & Mrs. Randy Wright
Ms. Pamela J. Wright
Dr. & Mrs. Victor L. Zirilli
And deepest thanks to all our donors who made gifts of any size. We’re so appreciative of you and your support!
Support for the 2025/26 Season will be reflected in future editions of InConcert. It’s never too early to add your name to the list with a generous contribution to the Nashville Symphony Annual Fund. Your support makes this performance and many more possible. Visit nashvillesymphony.org/donate to give and see your name in lights soon.
The Nashville Symphony is dedicated to sharing live orchestral music experiences with communities across Middle Tennessee — at Schermerhorn Symphony Center and beyond. Your support helps send our musicians into schools, community centers, and parks throughout the region.
EASY WAYS TO GIVE SCAN THE QR CODE TO DONATE NOW!
via phone: 615.687.6494
via mail: One Symphony Place Nashville, TN 37201
Online: NashvilleSymphony.org/Donate
* denotes donors who are deceased
In honor of Emzara & Emeil Al-Hashimi
In honor of Carole Batson
In honor of Phillip Cathey
In honor of Maestro Giancarlo Guerrero
In honor of Tod C. Koehler
In honor of Dr. Elizabeth Krogman
In honor of John Maple
In memory of Nathan & Marilyn Braustein
In memory of Marion Pickering Couch
In memory of Jeremy Dawkins
In memory of Betty Smith Dobson
In memory of Harold Donaldson
In memory of Henry Rodes Hart Sr.
In honor of Musicians
In honor of the Nashville Symphony Chorus
In honor of Victoria Pao
In honor of Suzanne Potter
In honor of Joel Reist
In honor of Scott Romine
In memory of James V. (Jim) Hunt, Sr.
In memory of Rodney Irvin
In memory off Michael Kilbane
In memory of Leah Koesten
In memory of Lt. Cmdr Alan A. Patterson
In memory of Steve Turner
OFFICERS
Mary Cavarra Board Chair
Pamela Carter
Immediate Past Board Chair
Teresa Sebastian Board Chair-Elec
Dr. Mark Peacock
Vice Chair
Hank Ingram Vice Chair
Jonathan McNabb
Treasurer
Emily Humphreys
Secretary
Alan D. Valentine
Steve Abelman Grace Awh
Alec Blazek*
Teresa Broyles-Aplin
Alexis Caddell*
Dr. Andre Churchwell
Starling Davis Clark
Eric Cook
John Crosslin
Yuri Cunza
Nick Deidiker
Robert Dennis
Travis Dunn Dr. Stephen Eaves Anthony Giarratana
President & CEO + Indicates Young Leaders Intern * Denotes Non-Voting Member
Catherine Grace
Brenda Griffin
Cesar Gueikian
Tonya Hallett
Michael Hayes
Likai He*
Vicki Horne
John Huie
Henry Ingram
Martha R. Ingram*
Neil Krugman
OFFICERS
Courtney Orr Chair
Keeley Locke Immediate Past Chair
Steven Attorri Chair-Elect
Hank Ingram Chair Emeritus
Branden Burkey Secretary
Trent Janos Development Chair
Virginia Adamson Governance Chair
Katherine Richardson Membership – Engagement Chair
Alex Wilhelm Membership – Recruitment Chair
Lindsay Stevenson Performance & Special Events Chair
Jasmine Greer Spirits of Summer Co-Chair
Alexandria Payton Spirits of Summer Co-Chair
In honor of Judi Sachs
In honor of Elizabeth Sandberg
In honor of Wilson & Delores Sharpe
In honor of Joseph Strausbaugh
In honor of Everly & Greg Suhayda
In honor of Sheri Switzer
In honor of Thomas L. Turk
In memory of Mary Gatwood Wallace
In memory of Shirley Marie Watts
In memory H. Martin Weingartner
In memory of Jennie Brown Wyatt
Trey Lee
Samantha Breske Magee
Rhonda Mulroy
Phylanice Nashe
Courtney Orr
Victoria Chu Pao
Anthony Parce*
Dr. Mark Peacock
Brett Ponton
Marielena Ramos
Jeanie Rittenberry
Will Robinson Jim Rooney
Laura Ross Dr. Kenneth Sands
Benjamin Scott
Michael Sposato
David Thomas Sr.
Jim Todd
Bryce VanDiver
Bill Wade
Gail Williams
Peter Witte*
DIRECTORS
Clay Brewer
Alexander Chan
Chelsea Curtis
Jason Eskind
Valentina Guidi
Gina Guo
Lizzie Hogan
Andrew Horowitz
Moragn Karr
Devin Mueller
Owen Thorne
Trey Watson
Accurate Healthcare
Actual Food
COUNIHAN FAMILY FOUNDATION
Ann Hardeman and Combs L. Fort Foundation
Beam Smile Design
Brown Brothers Harriman
Bruce Pittman, Inc.
Burroughs Family Foundation
Carolyn Smith Foundation
Christenberry Anderson Loomis
Family Foundation
Coca-Cola Bottling Company Consolidated
The Cockayne Fund Inc.
Corrections Corporation of America
Daniel A. Hatef M.D.
The Danner Foundation
DeLozier Plastic Surgery
Dillard's Corporation
Earl Swensson Associates, Inc. (ESa)
Ernest & Selma Rosenblum Fund
Ernst & Young
Thank you to our corporate and foundation partners for their generous support of the 2024/25 season and our education and community engagement activities. Partners through July 31, 2025 .
PATRICIA AND LOUIS TODD FAMILY FOUNDATION
WASHINGTON FOUNDATION, INC.
Fifth Third Bank
Gilpin Facial Plastics
Goodin Lawncare
The Hermitage Hotel
The Hendrix Foundation
The Heritage at Brentwood
Hewlett Packard
Hilton Nashville Downton
Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee
KraftCPAs PLLC
Laroche Family Foundation
Lightning 100
Los Angeles Philharmonic Association
M. Stratton Foster Charitable Foundation
The Mall at Green Hills
Melkus Family Foundation
The Memorial Foundation
Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County
AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION
THE WILLIAM STAMPS FARISH FUND
Morgan Stanley Gift Fund
Modern Woodmen
Nashville Plastic Surgery Institute
Northern Trust
Oakwood Cleaners
Private Edition
Publix Super Markets Charities
R. H. Boyd Publishing Corporation
Ryman Hospitality Properties Foundation
Samuel M. Fleming Foundation
Sebastian-Tunis Foundation
Soundtrack My Drink
StillWater
Styleblueprint
The Swanson Family Foundation
THNKS
Thrivent Financial
UBS
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
EXECUTIVE
Alan D. Valentine, President & CEO
Jeff vom Saal, COO
Amy Killett, CFO
Melinda C. Phillips, CDO
Heather Romero, Senior Executive Assistant & Board Liaison
ARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION
Angelica Franzino -Brown , Vice President of Artistic Planning
Evann Brantley, Director of Artistic Operations
Abby Sams, Manager of Artistic Planning
Andrew Risinger, Organ Curator
COMMUNICATIONS
Sherry D. Gibbs, Vice President of Communications
Alina Van Oostrom, Director of Digital Graphics
DEVELOPMENT
Jillian Neal, Senior Director of Development
Kimberly DePue, Development Officer
Byron Harvey II, Development Officer
Ashton Jennings, Senior Director of Corporate Partnerships
Serena Collins, Corporate Partnerships Assistant
Meredithe Hyjek, Director of Development Events
Ross Bader, Director of Donor Relations & Volunteer Services
Robert Esposito, Assistant Director of Development Operations
Emma Rojo, Development Operations Specialist
Jennie Humann, Grants Manager
Victoria Leniar, Development Coordinator
EDUCATION & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Kimberly Kraft McLemore, Vice President of Education & Community Engagement & General Manager
Bryson Finney, Director of Learning
Kelley Bell, Director of Community Engagement
Phillip Ducreay, Education & Community Engagement Manager
Karen Warren, Controller
Sheri Switzer, Senior Accountant
Bobby Saintsing, Payroll & Accounts Payable Manager
Junico Cardwell, Director of Human Resources
Trenton Leach, Senior Director of IT
Luke Henry, Director of Customer Service
Julia Towner, Ticketing & Customer Service Specialist
Nathan Stone, Director of CRM & Ticketing Operations
Elise Boling, Ticketing Operations Specialist
Garrett Seeds, Ticketing & Sales Supervisor
Richard Byington, Sales Specialist
Misha Robledo, Group Sales Specialist
Orchestra Personnel
Pavana Stetzik, Director of Orchestra Personnel
Sarah Figueroa , Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager
Production
Josh Walliser, Senior Director of Production
Trey Franklin, Senior Lighting Director
Cameron Martin, Lighting Director
Cameron Lambert, Audio Director
Brent Mitschke, Audio Engineer & Production Manager
Kai Nakkim, Assistant Production Manager
VENUE MANAGEMENT
Eric Swartz, Vice President of Venue Management
John Sanders, Chief Technical Engineer
Kenneth Dillehay, Chief Engineer
Wade Johnson, Facility Director
Amber Arthur, Senior Event Manager
Abigail Imthurn, Event Supervisor
Kamiljon Bouranov, Beverage Manager
Dominic Vulcano, Assistant Beverage Manager
Robert Gibbs , Director of Security
Tonesha Greer, Stage Door Receptionist
