Message from the Premier Congratulations to the esteemed Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra on their 20232024 season. The NSO is a cultural arts institution in Newfoundland and Labrador. Its ambitious and varied programming each year attracts regular audience members, and new fans alike. Over the last number of years, their inclusion of performances based on iconic pop culture have been met with enormous popularity and have drawn audiences of all ages. The NSO has a strong commitment to community partnerships, reaching over 10,000 students in 2022-23 with their in-school, virtual and interactive programs and providing online concerts, free of charge, to more than 80 senior’s homes. Congratulations, as well, to Marc David, now in his final full season as Music Director, on his outstanding artistic achievements during his long career with the NSO The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is a proud supporter of the NSO and values its contributions to our province’s arts and cultural sector. All the best for a successful season.
Message from the Mayor
Hon. Andrew Furey, Premier
On behalf of Council, it is my pleasure to congratulate the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra on its 61st Anniversary, Celebrating the year of the Arts. The City of St. John’s is a proud supporter of the arts and of this vibrant organization. With multiple performances every season, the educational experiences and entertainment provided to all ages is amazing. This season promises to entertain like no other and we are extremely fortunate to have talented musicians as the heartbeat of our musical community whom are there to share their talent and love of music with us all. The NSO board, staff, volunteers and sponsors work diligently each and every year to bring these shows to our community. Allow me to express my appreciation for your hard work and dedication and thank you for the significant contributions you make to the truly unique culture of our City. Best wishes –
Message from the Lieutenant Governor
Danny Breen, Mayor
As Patron of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, I welcome you to the 2023-24 season as we celebrate the Year of the Arts. As always, the NSO collaborates with the local arts community to deliver exciting programs. NSO performances consistently provide outstanding entertainment, and showcase some of the most talented musicians and performers not only in our province but our country and beyond. Undoubtedly, people of all ages will enjoy the myriad of excellent performances which the orchestra is offering this season. As an advocate of the arts, I congratulate the NSO. It has shown itself to be a cultural tour de force in our community, rivaling the best in Canada. I have no doubt you will continue to entertain and delight your audiences.
Judy M. Foote P.C., O.N.L. Lieutenant Governor
HALLOWE’EN SPOOKTACULAR
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We acknowledge the province of Newfoundland and Labrador as the traditional territory of diverse Indigenous groups, and we acknowledge with respect the diverse histories and cultures of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu, and Inuit of this province. We strive for respectful relationships with all the peoples of this province as we search for collective healing and true reconciliation and honour this beautiful land together.
HALLOWE’EN SPOOKTACULAR October 27, 2023 | St. John’s Arts & Culture Centre
Marc David, conductor
“Snap! Snap!” original script written by Kyle McDavid Featuring youth performers from Best Kind Productions: Rebecca Sellars | Gracie Goobie | Madeline Diamond-Grah | Charlotte Doyle Henry Doyle | Genavieve Froom | Emma Harrington | Mila Pike
Join our pre-show trivia competition! https://www.crowd.live/NSOHS
PROGRAMME Wednesday (Main Title) - D. Elfman (1 min.) Danse Macabre - C. Saint-Saëns (7 min.) Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 8, RV 297, “Winter” (L’inverno) - A. Vivaldi I. Allegro non molto (3 min.)
Pictures at an Exhibition - M. Mussorgsky, orch. Ravel (7 min.) IX. The Hut on Fowl’s Legs, “Baba Yaga”
In the Hall of the Mountain King - E. Grieg (2 min.) Paint It, Black (Excerpt) - M. Jagger, K. Richards (1 min.) Amy Collyer-Holmes, cello
Purple People Eater - S .Wooley (2 min.) Theme from The Addams Family - V. Mizzy (2 min.) Pulled (The Addams Family Musical) - A. Lippa (3 min.) Rebecca Sellars, vocals; Gracie Goobie, dance
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Rebecca Sellars is a Memorial University School of Music voice major studying under the direction of Dr. Jane Leibel. Select theatre include: Janet in The Rocky Horror Show (TaDa! Events), Sophie in Sidewalk Dandelion (Shallaway/Best Kind Productions), Matilda (Peter MacDonald Productions), and fresh off her first professional contract, tour and Toronto theatre debut, Let’s Dance! the Musical as Andrea Alden (Terra Bruce Productions). Rebecca is represented by daCosta Talent Agency in Toronto. Rebecca is thrilled to be performing with the NSO for the very first time and hopes you enjoy the show!
Gracie Goobie is 14 years old and has been dancing since she was 3 years old, competitively by age 9. She was bitten by the theatre bug, and began acting in musical theatre at the age of 10 and from there started singing performances a couple of years later. Gracie competed in Europe with Team Canada this past summer, and just came back from New York City where she trained with Broadway professionals!
Madeline Diamond-Grah is happy to be returning to the stage after coming off an exciting summer of playing the Mayor in The SpongeBob Musical. Madeline takes voice and piano classes with Halliday Music and is an active member of Shallaway Youth Choir singing in both Camerata and Exsultate Ensembles. In addition to singing and acting Madeline is bilingual, fluent in both English and French, she also enjoys playing guitar, hiking and baking. Madeline would like to thank Jennifer Halliday, Kellie Walsh, Jennifer Hart and Kyle McDavid for helping her discover her passion. Charlotte Doyle is 17 years old, and loves to sing, dance, and act. She has been singing with Shallaway Youth Choir since 2017 as part of the Lauda ensemble. In 2019, she won the Mary P. Kelly Memorial Award for Excellence and Dedication to Music. In 2022, she played the lead role as Emily in Sidewalk Dandelion (Lauda). She also played Beethoven in last year’s NSO Halloween Spooktacular. In the spring of 2023, she was a member of the ASNL Physical Art Troupe and is currently working on the original neurodiversity awareness play Understanding Wonderland, where she plays The March Hare and Tweedle Dum. When Charlotte is not on stage, she loves watching other people do their thing on stage. Henry Doyle is a grade 12 student at HHM in St. John’s. He is a long-standing member of Lauda, the neurodiverse chorus within Shallaway Youth Choir. He has performed in Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat with Best Kind Productions summer theatre as the Butler, in Sidewalk Dandelion with Lauda as Raine, and as Mr. Prettie with the Charlottetown Heritage Players. He is a proud member of and advocate for our neurodiverse community.
Genavieve Froom is is a singer, songwriter, and performer. She has been in the cast of the past four Best Kind Productions summer musicals, held in Bowring Park. (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, How Do You Get to Jellybean Row?, Disney’s Descendants, and The SpongeBob Musical) Genavieve has had a lifelong interest in music, and has aspirations to pursue a career in music production.
Emma Harrington is a grade 7 student at St.Paul’s Junior High. Emma loves to sing, dance, and act. She has been a member of Best Kind Productions since 2020 performing in How Do You Get to Jellybean Row, Disney’s Descendants: The Musical, The SpongeBob Musical, and the 2022 NSO Halloween Spooktacular. She is thrilled to be performing again this year in the Halloween Spooktacular: Snap! Snap!
Mila Pike is a 15 year old student at Holy Heart High school. She sings with Shallaway Youth Choir and this year joined the HHM Chamber Choir. She was in The SpongeBob Musical this summer and studies dance, voice and piano. Mila is thrilled to be on stage in the Halloween Spooktacular. Enjoy the show!
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Violin 1 Heather Kao Daniel Fuchs
Dominic Greene Jennifer Johnson
Andy Kao Natalie Finn
Ilyas Duissen
Elena Vigna Valerie Hewson
Whit Fitzgerald
Violin 2
Nancy Case-Oates Maria Cherwick
Carole Bestvater Zhongli Hu
Viola
Ema Shiroma-Chao Norma Noseworthy
Chantelle Jubenville Rosaura Aguilar Jonathan Stevens
Cello
Nathan Cook Katherine Shipley
Sandra Pope Pierre Kusters
Amy Collyer-Holmes Nancy Bannister Laura Ivany
Bass Frank Fusari Matthew Hardy
Denise Lear
Nick Howlett
Flute
Sarah Comerford
Grace Dunsmore
Donna Spurvey
Oboe
Annie Corrigan
Kathy Conway-Ward
Clarinet
Christine Carter
Brenda Gatherall
Bassoon
Grant Etchegary
Nicole Hand
Chris Williams (contrabassoon)
Horn
Emily Dunsmore
Doug Vaughan
Michelle Stevenson
Trumpet
Katie Sullivan
Jill Dawe
Christian Berglander
Trombone
Darren McDonald
Erin Sullivan
Mahina Graham-Laidlaw
Jim Vivian
David Natsheh
Bass Trombone Andrew Cooper
Tuba
Catherine Tansley
Percussion Rob Power Etienne Gendron Amy Parsons David Kerr Jamie Moran Harp
Sarah Veber
Keyboard
Brian Way
NSO Staff Marc David, Music Director/Conductor Hugh Donnan, CEO Lynn Ann Pye, Patron Relations Manager Jennifer Brennan, Education & Outreach Coordinator Maria Penney, Marketing & Development Manager Dominic Greene, Personnel Manager Steve Power, Production Manager/Video Production/Editing Jenny Griffioen, Librarian Kyle McDavid, Graphic Designer
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NSO Board Tom Hickey(Chair) Margaret Allan (Vice-Chair) Karen Bulmer Jessica Chapman Amy Collyer-Holmes Michelle Davis Aimee Letto Paul McDonald Heather McKinnon Ian Penney Andrea Rose Conor Stack Alana Walsh-Giovannini Douglas Wright Elizabeth Wright Jing Xia
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Kyle McDavid (writer/director) is a producer, director, writer/composer, arts educator,
graphic designer, and the founder and co-Artistic Director of Best Kind Productions. He is the writer/composer of the original musical, Impresario, based on the life of St. John’s-born Broadway legend, John Murray Anderson, which was produced through the Resource Centre for the Arts in 2017, and children’s musicals Sidewalk Dandelion (commissioned for Shallaway Youth Choir’s neurodiverse ensemble, Lauda) and How Do You Get To Jellybean Row? Kyle is also the co-writer of musicals Isobel Gunn, Red Rock, and Sunset Flip, composer for Ladies Who Lunch Productions’ annual retro radio play series Three Tales of Terror, and has created scripts for the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra’s family pops concerts, as well as the their 2022 Labrador Tour, and The Singing Network’s 2022 performance of The 18: A Come Home Year Concert of Remembrance, .
About Best Kind Productions We are a theatre company based in St. John’s, Newfoundland. We produce high quality musicals and plays with an outside-the-box sensibility. We are an incubator for the development of new Canadian musical theatre, contributing to the artistic landscape of our province. We are committed to nurturing imagination, commitment, and kindness in our province’s youth, through performance and educational experiences. We are community builders, bringing great people together to collaborate and dream. We are Best Kind.
Special thanks to our accommodations partner:
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WAYS TO SUPPORT THE NSO You don’t have to be a musician to play your part in the NSO. NSO supporters make an investment in one of this province’s most important educational, musical, and cultural resources. The NSO performs nearly 20 times each season and reaches over 20,000 people across all demographics. This would not be possible without the support of the community, local businesses and people like YOU! There are many different ways to support your NSO and help us continue to grow orchestral music in Newfoundland and Labrador.
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A STANDING OVATION FOR ALL OUR SUPPORTERS
nsomusic.ca
Photo: Alick Tsui
P.O. Box 23125 St. John’s, NL A1B 4J9 709-722-4441