The Southwest Florida Symphony presents the first Pops Concert of its 55th season: It’s a Grand Night for Rodgers & Hammerstein featuring
local children’s chorus, The Oasis Symphony Singers
Fort Myers, FL— The Southwest Florida Symphony, Lee County’s professional orchestra and one of the oldest symphony orchestras on Florida’s gulf coast, presents the first Pops Concert of its 55th season, It’s a Grand Night for Rodgers & Hammerstein, on Friday, January 8th and Saturday, January 9th, 2016. In addition to featuring special guest conductor, artistically versatile Maestro Daniel Meyer, highly celebrated Broadway veteran, Lisa Vroman, who most notably starred for several years as Christine Daaé in the Broadway production of Phantom of the Opera, the symphony welcomes children’s chorus, The Oasis Symphony Singers of Oasis Charter Elementary School. The Oasis Singers are an extra-curricular choral group comprised of Oasis Charter Elementary School 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students, directed by the elementary school’s music teacher, Sara Myers. Oasis Charter Schools are located in Cape Coral. The full chorus consists of 126 singers. They rehearse one or more mornings per week before school starts and perform at school and community events throughout the school year. The group of 30 past and present Oasis Singers that will perform with the Southwest Florida Symphony auditioned against their peers to earn the privilege of performing alongside Ms. Vroman and the orchestra.
It’s a Grand Night for Rodgers & Hammerstein tells the all-American classic success story; two boys from New York, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, meet at Columbia University and go on to change the entire history of the American Musical during their 16-year collaboration. This concert features immortal music from Oklahoma, South Pacific, The Sound of Music and other timeless Broadway treasures. Tickets range from $24 to $84 and may be purchased at the Southwest Florida Symphony Box Office by calling 239-418-1500 or visiting in person, online at WWW.SWFLSO.ORG and at all performance venues.
Oasis Charter Elementary School Information
Oasis Charter Elementary School is part of the City of Cape Coral Charter School System. Since its opening in 2005 as the city’s first municipal charter school it has prided itself on being kind, caring, loving, and respectful yet having high academic expectations. Teaming together with our teachers, community, and families has allowed our school to be great.
Oasis offers parents a positive alternative to school choice. We have a private school setting at a public school price. Oasis is a quality school built on the Core Knowledge curriculum. Core Knowledge is a rigorous and challenging curriculum aligned to state standards covering all Core subjects, reading, math, English, social studies, science, and the arts. This curriculum, based on research by E.D. Hirsch, gives students a systematic learning progression for grades K-8.
Parents are encouraged to be an active participant in their child’s education. A 30-hour volunteer requirement, PTO and our School Advisory Committee are but a few ways parents can be involved. This year, we have offered Open House, Curriculum Night, and Parent-Teacher Conferences. Ninety-two percent of our parents attended Open House and 96% attended Parent-Teacher Conferences, a tribute to our parents’ commitment to quality education.
Oasis offers children an opportunity to receive a quality education in their community school. Our small class size, quality teachers, and challenging curriculum all go together to create a great learning opportunity for our students.
Southwest Florida Symphony General Information
The Southwest Florida Symphony is the only professional orchestra in Lee County and the one of the oldest on Florida’s gulf coast. It enters its 55th season this year, having made its debut as a community orchestra on April 15, 1961. Conducted by Arlo Deibler, the Symphony began its life as a community orchestra and its original roster consisted of 24 musicians. It performed in community centers and schools throughout Lee and Collier Counties. It has since grown to become Lee County’s only professional symphony orchestra, filling Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall with symphonic music enthusiasts and a roster consisting of more than 65 world-class musicians. The Southwest Florida Symphony’s 55th year promises to be a season of continued enthusiasm as internationally acclaimed Maestro Nir Kabaretti leads the symphony into another season of blockbuster performances. Maestro Kabaretti is the fifth music director in the organization’s history. His presence and caliber of musicality garnered record setting attendance at many of the symphony’s 2014-15 Masterworks Concerts. The Southwest Florida Symphony’s mission is to celebrate the joy of music and to inspire audiences with a variety of quality concerts performed by professional musicians that are accessible to all.
This season features the Southwest Florida Symphony’s signature Masterworks Classical Concert Series, entitled A Symphonic Storybook (November 21, Carmina Burana; January 23, One Thousand and One Nights; February 13, Love Triangle; March 5, A Night at the Opera; and April 2 & 3, The Shakespeare Experience), a special Holiday Pops concert entitled The Holidays in Paradise on December 16 & 17 at Flagler College in St. Augustine, December 19 at Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, December 20 at BIG ARTS on Sanibel and December 21 at The Village Church at Shell Point; its Pops Series (Rodgers & Hammerstein Celebration on January 8 & 9; A Night at the Oscars on February 5 & 6; and My Sinatra on April 2 & 3), a chamber series called Small Stage Symphonies℠, performed at BIG ARTS on Sanibel Island (January 13, February 3 and March 23), Faith Presbyterian Church in Cape Coral (August 12, 2015, January 15 and March 22), The Village Church at Shell Point (August 13, 2015, January 14 and February 4), and at the Sidney & Berne Davis Arts Center (August 14, 2015 and March 21).
Maestro Nir Kabaretti bio
Nir Kabaretti comes to Southwest Florida from the Santa Barbara Symphony in California, where he also serves as music and artistic director. He enters his tenth season with Santa Barbara this year. He has been described as “a conductor with immense musicality and warm personality” by Maestro Zubin Mehta. Kabaretti has earned an impressive reputation across continents for his command of a vast symphonic and operatic repertoire.
Upon graduation from the prestigious University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Kabaretti began working as coach and Chorus Master at the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival. He later advanced to positions as Assistant to the Music Director at the Teatro Real in Madrid and Personal Assistant to Maestro Zubin Mehta at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy.
Nir Kabaretti has worked with some of the world’s most sought-after musicians, such as Lang Lang, Placido Domingo, Itzhak Perlman, and Hélène Grimaud. His guest conducting appearances have included the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmonica de Buenos Aires, Orquestre National du Theatre du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Orchestra del Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari, Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi di Milano, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, La Orquesta Sinfonica de Madrid, Real Orquesta Sinfònica de Sevilla, La Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria and the Bochumer Symphoniker.
He was appointed Principal Conductor of the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra in Israel in 2002, and later as its Music Director till 2008.
Kabaretti’s operatic experience includes productions at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Real in Madrid, The Israeli Opera, Opéra de Lausanne, Avenches Opera Festival in Switzerland, Tokyo New National Theatre and Opera Santa Barbara.
He conducted The Diary of Anne Frank, a guest production of the Vienna State Opera performed at both the Bregenz Festival and Expo 2000 in Hannover. In 2005, Kabaretti lead Teatro San Carlo di Napoli on its first tour to Japan, conducting Il Trovatore both in Kyoto and Tokyo.
During the 2004-05 season he made his debut at Teatro alla Scala di Milano. In 2007 he was invited again for the ballet production of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer night’s Dream (broadcasted by Italian television RAI, and released as a commercial DVD).
Maestro Kabaretti received the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Grant for Young Conductors. In 1993, he won the Forum Junger Künstler Conducting Competition in Vienna. In 1994 he was among the finalists in the International Competition for Conductors in Douai, France.
Southwest Florida Symphony Sponsors
The Southwest Florida Symphony’s 2015-16 sponsors include The Southwest Florida Symphony’s Board of Trustees, The Southwest Florida Community Foundation, The City of Fort Myers, The State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, The Florida Council on Arts & Culture, The Southwest Florida Symphony Endowment Foundation, The Southwest Florida Symphony Society, The L.A.T. Foundation, Uhler & Vertich Financial Planners, Enterprise Rent-a-car, IberiaBank, The Neil Goldberg Dream Foundation, Rev. Gary & Mrs. Christine LaCroix, Mr. Charles B. Munsch, Mr. Don Fjellin, Ernie Fogg & Margot Flinn,‘Tween Waters Inn, Bailey’s General Store, Sanibel Captiva Community Bank, Crowne Plaza, Mastello Ristorante, Advanced Pain Management and Spine Specialists, Alexander & Hoover, LCEC, The Cape Coral Community Foundation, The Friends of the Symphony on Sanibel, Mr. & Mrs. Steve and Charlotte Qua, Pamela Templeton and the Red Lipstick Foundation, Suncoast Schools Credit Union and Mark Loren Designs.
Event: Southwest Florida Symphony’s Pops I: It’s a Grand Night for Rodgers & Hammerstein
Date: Friday, January 8 & Saturday, January 9, 2016
Location: Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall
Tickets: $24-$84
For more information, call 239-418-1500 or visit www.swflso.org
