Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra Celebrates 20th Anniversary Season

The Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra of OWC is celebrating its 20th anniversary season and tickets are now available for all remaining symphony performances.

The NFSO season opened in late October with a “Postcards from Abroad” concert featuring guitar virtuoso Miroslav Loncar. The NFSO continued its 20th anniversary celebration on November 17 to 19 with performances of the holiday favorite “The Nutcracker” with the Northwest Florida Ballet. A true holiday classic, “The Nutcracker” performances were a feast for the senses and treat for the entire family.

For upcoming concerts, the Northwest Florida Symphony Chorus will join the orchestra at two separate performances during the season to present some of best-loved works for chorus and orchestra; Handel’s “Messiah” on December 8 and “A German Requiem” by Johannes Brahms on April 13, 2007. For the “Messiah,” rising star bass-baritone Donovan Singletary, 2006 winner of the prestigious Metropolitan Opera National Council Grand Prize will perform as one of the principal soloists. Additionally, 2006 Metropolitan Opera National Council semifinalist Alison Bates from the Minnesota Opera will join OWC music professors Allison Everitt and Jeremy Ribando, rounding out the symphony’s slate of soloists for Handel’s masterwork.

Two veteran performers with the Pensacola Opera, who both boast national professional careers, will join the NFSO and the symphony chorus for the “A German Requiem” on April 13; soprano Jane Redding and baritone Timothy Kennedy.

The NFSO will also present a concert on February 23, 2007 that features a newly commissioned work by composer Jeremy Ribando, an OWC music professor. The “Talent of Today and Tomorrow” concert will celebrate the 20th season of the orchestra as well as the history of the Emerald Coast and will also feature the winners of the 20th annual Concerto Competition for young musicians that is sponsored by the NFSO Guild.

Ribando’s commissioned work, Boggy Portraits, marks a unique collaboration between the orchestra and the Heritage Museum in Valparaiso. The museum is helping to sponsor the project and will provide the historical images that will be shown during the performance of this exciting new work for full orchestra.

OWC music professor Lois Van Dam serves in her second season as Music Director of the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra. She has an extensive background as a pianist, organist, and conductor. In addition to serving as the NFSO’s Music Director, Van Dam conducts the Northwest Florida Symphony Chorus and teaches piano and voice at Okaloosa-Walton College. She also teaches Advanced Placement Music Theory at Niceville High School and is music director at First United Methodist Church in Fort Walton Beach. Individual tickets for Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra performances are now on sale through The Arts Center Box Office, by phone at (850) 729-6000 or by internet at The Arts Center’s website at www.owc.edu/arts. Individual tickets are $22.50 each. For additional information about the NFSO, its concerts and varied educational programs or the NFSO Guild, visit the symphony website at www.nfsymphony.org.

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