UK Symphony Orchestra to Open Spring Concerts With Brahms, Kurtág and Concerto Competition Winners

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 12, 2018) — The critically acclaimed University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maestro John Nardolillo, will continue its 2017-18 season with a concert featuring the winners of the ensemble’s concerto competition, UK students David Seder and Chase Teachey. The program will also feature the first Kentucky performance of a new work by Hungarian composer György Kurtág and the magisterial final symphony of Johannes Brahms. The concert will begin 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 16, at the Singletary Center for the Arts.

The February concert will feature the 2018 UK Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition winners David Seder, on trombone, on Ferdinand David’s Concertino for Trombone, and Chase Teachey, on euphonium, on Philip Wilby’s Concerto for Euphonium. The concert will also include György Kurtág’s musical tribute to French conductor and composer Pierre Boulez, “Petite musique solennelle en hommage à Pierre Boulez 90.” This will be the Kentucky premiere of this piece written to celebrate the 90th birthday of Boulez. The orchestra will conclude the evening with a masterpiece, the powerful Symphony No. 4 in E minor by Johannes Brahms.

Originally from Lexington, David Seder began his musical journey at six years old when he took his first piano lesson. While attending the School for the Creative and Performing Arts (SCAPA) at Lafayette High School in Lexington, he picked up the trombone. Throughout his middle and high school years, Seder took lessons at the Central Music Academy, performed in each ensemble at the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras, and was mentored by piano instructor Greg Partain and trombone instructor Anastasi Fafalios. In high school, Seder was a part of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Math Science and Technology Center. The trombone performance sophomore is currently studying in the studio of Bradley Kerns, assistant professor of trombone and director of undergraduate studies at UK School of Music. Music education junior Chase Teachey is also a native of Lexington, where he graduated from SCAPA in 2015. During high school, Teachey was selected to perform in the District 7 Honor Band all four years and the Kentucky Music Educators Association All-State Symphonic Band in 2014 and 2015. Teachey also participated in The Kentucky Center Governor’s School for the Arts, the United States Army All-American Marching Band and the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra Symphony Orchestra. Teachey has performed with the Lexington Brass Band and River Brass, and is currently the principal euphonium in the Kentucky-Tennessee Salvation Army Brass Band, where he will be featured as a soloist in May. While at UK, Teachey has performed with the Wildcat Marching Band, Symphonic Band, Wind Symphony, Symphony Orchestra, Laboratory Band, Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble, and Trombone Choir. Teachey has taken private lessons from Skip Gray, UK professor of tuba and euphonium; Kerns; Terry Magee, former associate director of bands at Lafayette High School; Ryan Moore, artist-in-residence at Kentucky State University; Lawrence Banks, band director at Lexington Catholic High School; and John Bowmer, director of bands at Beaumont Middle School.

Founded in 1918, the UK Symphony Orchestra is a 100-member all-student orchestra presenting more than 50 concerts each year, including classical, chamber and education concerts. The group is made up of undergraduate and graduate students from across the United States, Asia, South America and Europe.

The orchestra has regularly performed with world-renowned concert artists including Itzhak Perlman, Lang Lang, Sarah Chang, Gil Shaham, Lynn Harrell, Marvin Hamlisch, Denyce Graves, Christine Brewer, Pink Martini, Ronan Tynan, Mark O’Connor, Wynonna Judd, Keith Lockhart and Arlo Guthrie. The orchestra has played at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., toured the state of Kentucky regularly, and toured China, playing concerts in major concert halls in Shanghai, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Yangzhou and Beijing. The orchestra’s performance at Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts was broadcast on China Central Television, a network reaching more than 1.5 billion viewers. In the fall of 2010 the orchestra played for the opening ceremonies of the World Equestrian Games, a live NBC performance that featured more than 1,500 performers and 200 horses seen by 39 million people in the U.S. and by an estimated 500 million more television viewers worldwide

John Nardolillo has appeared with more than 30 of the country’s leading orchestras, including the Boston Pops, the National Symphony, and principal orchestras of Seattle, San Francisco, Detroit, Atlanta, Dallas, Milwaukee, Utah, Columbus, Indianapolis, Oregon, Fort Worth, Buffalo, Alabama, Louisville, Missouri, North Carolina, Toledo, Vermont, Columbus, Omaha and Hawaii. He also recently conducted concerts at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia; and Carnegie Hall in New York. Nardolillo made his professional conducting debut in 1994 at the Sully Festival in France, and has since made conducting appearances in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and China. He has led major American orchestras in subscription series concerts, summer and pops concerts, education concerts and tours, and for television and radio broadcasts. In 2004, Nardolillo joined the faculty at the UK School of Music, where he is currently serving as the director of Orchestras.

Doors for the UK Symphony Orchestra concert open at 7 p.m. with music beginning at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for general admission, $5 for students, and free for UK students with a valid ID before the day of the performance (in person at the Singletary Center ticket office). Tickets are available through the Singletary Center ticket office online at www.scfatickets.com, by phone 859-257-4929, or in person at the venue. Children 6 and older are welcome.

UK Symphony Orchestra is part of the UK School of Music at the UK College of Fine Arts. The school has garnered a national reputation for high-caliber education in opera, choral and instrumental music performance, as well as music education, music therapy, composition, and theory and music history.