February 14, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Journey to the Emerald Isle to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in true Celtic style with dancing, bagpipes, exciting theatrical staging and music that blends Broadway, pops, classical and traditional Celtic sounds in an Oregon Symphony Bank of America Pops concert led by guest conductor Jack Everly on March 15, 16 and 17 in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Media support is provided by KXL Newsradio and Oregon Business Magazine.
Everly has marshaled an impressive cast of performers to present traditional music and dance of The Emerald Isle. The cast includes tenor Benjamin Brecher, whose operatic credits include performances with the New York City Opera and Glimmerglass; Irish instrumental specialist Christopher Layer who plays a number of traditional Celtic instruments, including wood flutes and the Irish “uiellean” pipes; soprano Marta Burton, who has performed at the Kennedy Center; actor Todd Lawson, who has performed in numerous shows on and off Broadway; and the acclaimed O’Hare Dancers, led by Tim O’Hare, who has toured with The Chieftains. The production will feature recorded narration by Helen Gallagher, known to millions of viewers as “Maeve Ryan” on ABC’s daytime series “Ryan’s Hope,”
The concert musically portrays the story of a young Irishman and his mother during the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s, and the son’s subsequent journey to America to establish a new life for them both. The concert opens with scenes that dramatize letters between mother and son, set to music from the film “Braveheart,” and “Molly on the Shore.” Irish tenor Benjamin Brecher will then perform series of traditional songs for tenors including “Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Rah (An Irish Melody)” and “When Irish Eyes are Smiling.” The first half closes with more “Letters from the Homeland,” set to Everly’s arrangements of the songs “The Dear Irish Boy” and “I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen.”
A highlight of the second half will be special guest bagpipers performing an orchestral arrangement of “A Piper Celebration,” and Brecher singing “Oh Danny Boy.” The concert will conclude with music from “Lord of the Dance,” featuring the O’Hare Irish Dancers, and an audience sing-along finale.
“Celtic Celebration” is produced in collaboration with the Symphonic Pops Consortium, which is comprised of the Indianapolis (managing partner), Detroit, Milwaukee, National, St. Louis, and Seattle Symphony Orchestras.
Performances are scheduled for Saturday, March 15, at 8 p.m., Sunday, March 16, at 3 and 7 p.m. and Monday, March 17, at 8 p.m. in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets range in price from $23 to $65 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or charged by phone at 503-228-1353 or (800) 228-7343. Tickets also may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets (503-790-ARTS) or through Ticketmaster Online, via the Symphony’s Web site at www.orsymphony.org. www.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply. Service fees may apply.
The multi-faceted conductor Jack Everly will become Principal Pops Conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra beginning with the 2002-2003 season. He has been Music Director of the ISO’s holiday production of Ameritech’s “Yuletide Celebration” since 1994 and has also appeared frequently on the Orchestra’s Pops Series. In the fall of 1998 Everly accepted the position of Music Advisor for the Symphonic Pops Consortium, an alliance formed by several major orchestras, including the ISO, to create and produce theatrical pops events.
Everly is a regular guest conductor on the world’s concert, opera and ballet stages. In addition to Indianapolis, he has appeared with the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, DC), the National Symphony of London, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, the Teatro Colon, the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Saint Louis, Pittsburgh and San Francisco, as well as at the Lake George Opera Festival and with the opera house orchestras of Kennedy Center, Sao Paulo and the Teatro Massimo. Engagements this season include the Baltimore, Milwaukee and Cincinnati Pops symphony orchestras.
Artists with whom Everly has collaborated include Ella Fitzgerald, Diane Schurr, John Raitt, Sarah Brightman, Mary Martin, Marilyn Horne, Carol Burnett, Gary Morris, Itzhak Perlman and Frederica Von Stade.
Everly served as Music Director with American Ballet Theatre for 14 years. Originally appointed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, his international schedule with the renowned company included thousands of performances and dozens of world premiere productions at Lincoln Center’s famed Metropolitan Opera House. The company’s famously eclectic repertoire ranges from Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto and Brahms’ Third Symphony to the well known classics “Swan Lake,” “The Sleeping Beauty,” “Cinderella,” “Giselle,” “Coppelia” and “Nutcracker.” Artists of dance for whom Everly has conducted include Rudolph Nureyev, Twyla Tharp, Sylvie Guillem, Cynthia Gregory and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Everly has also worked with composer Marvin Hamlisch on productions of “They’re Playing Our Song” and “A Chorus Line” as well as pops concerts with many of America’s leading symphony orchestras. Most recently they joined forces on Broadway for the musical version of Neil Simon’s film “The Goodbye Girl” starring Bernadette Peters and Martin Short. Other Broadway Music Director credits include “Hello, Dolly!” starring Carol Channing and “Show Boat” with Donald O’Connor.
Television appearances for Everly include the PBS “A Salute to Broadway” for the “In Performance At The White House” series as well as the PBS telecast from the Metropolitan Opera House of the Prokofiev-MacMillan “Romeo and Juliet” starring Natalia Makarova.
Everly’s discography includes numerous Broadway cast recordings and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses: The Complete Overtures of Broadway’s Jule Styne.” For this recording, he created the critical editions as well as conducted. In Hollywood he served as Music Director for the Disney film “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”
At home in New York City, Everly is an avid collector of classic films and music from the stage and cinema.
Tenor Benjamin Brecher returns for his fourth season with “Celtic Celebration,” which he has performed with the symphonies of Detroit, Indianapolis, Knoxville, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Virginia, Pittsburgh, Ft. Worth, Ottawa, Seattle and the National Symphony at Kennedy Center. He has gained great acclaim through his many performances on the opera and concert stages, both in the great tradition of Irish song as well as the Bel Canto opera repertoire. He sang with many companies including Santa Fe, Arizona, Mexico City, Tel Aviv, Chautauqua, St. Louis and Palm Beach, as well as New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera and Berkshire Opera. He sang “La Sonnambula” and “I Capuleti e I Montecchi” with Opera Orchestra of New York; “Il Viaggio a Reims” at the Rossini Opera festival in Pesaro Italy; and has recorded “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” with the internationally renowned Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, and an award winning Handel’s “Messiah” with the Trinity orchestra. Upcoming engagements include “The Merry Widow” in Palm Beach; “L’Italiana in Algeri” in Nice; “La Donna del Lago” with Opera Orchestra of New York in Carnegie Hall, and concerts in Indiana, Columbus, Baltimore and Tel Aviv.
Christopher Layer (Irish Uilleann Bagpipes, Wood Flutes, Whistle, Scottish Highland Bagpipes) is a multi-instrumentalist with interests in both traditional and classical music. His orchestral appearances include the National Symphony (Kennedy Center), The Alabama, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Lafayette, Knoxville, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Muncie, Evansville and Richmond Symphony Orchestras, as well as The Aspen Festival Orchestra, and The Bard Festival Orchestra. Festivals include the Moab Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Bard Music Festival, Festival Internacionale de Louisianne, Musiksfest-Regensburg and The Bard Festival at Lincoln Center. Concert Production includes The First Folklife Concert at Ticonderoga, “La Nouvelle Orleans” and “Music In The Barn,” both for Project America at the 92nd St. “Y.” Compositions include scoring for the Irish independent film “Exile.” Solo recordings include “Out Of Thin Air” and “Return Of The Rivers,” both available through the artist. Layer is a native “Hoosier” and the son of soprano Dolores Layer and fiddler Ed Layer. He has been the principle pipe soloist and flautist for the Trinity Irish Dance Company since 1996 and currently resides in New York City.
Todd Lawson has been seen on Broadway in “Summer and Smoke” with Mary McDonnell and Harry Hamlin, the National Tour of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” as Hero opposite Rip Taylor, and Off-Broadway as part of the Young Playwright’s Festival. Recent performances include “The Shape Of Things” with the Repertory of Saint Louis, as well as other Regional performances of “Earth to Bucky,” “Our Town,” “Hair,” “Scituate,” “Black Comedy,” “South Pacific,” “The Real Inspector Hound,” “You Can’t Take it with You” and “Three Days of Rain.” Lawson has also performed with the Seattle Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony orchestras.
Marta Burton’s love of the folk music traditions of England, Ireland, Scotland and America is celebrated in her solo album “Echo,” featuring her original song, “Child of the Western Prairie,” an anthem celebrating her Wyoming roots. She has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Seattle Symphony and the National Arts Symphony Orchestra in Ottawa. Regional musical and light opera credits include Polly in “Crazy for You,” Anna in “The King and I,” and roles in “The Sound of Music,” “Me and My Girl,” “Damn Yankees,” “South Pacific,” “Camelot,” “Ruddigore” and Vaughn Williams’ “Riders to the Sea.” Other theater credits include “Medea,” “‘Night Mother” and “The Importance of Being Earnest.”
Tim O’Hare started the O’Hare School of Irish Dance in 1979 in Plymouth, Mich., opened new schools in Cleveland and Akron in 1984 and further expanded his school to Chicago in 1996. He has more than 450 students enrolled in the Westland, Chicago and Akron schools. Many of O’Hare’s students have won Midwest and National Championships in solo, group and dance drama competitions including Paul Cusick, who was the first American male to win the All-Ireland Championship in 1997. He was joined by Michael Belvitch and Patrick Quinn in February 1998 and Tim Seeman in 2002. Tim O’Hare began his dance career at the early age of five at the Dineen School of Irish Dance in Detroit. He began dancing competitively at age 10 at the national level and won his first North American National Title that year. He went on to be the National Champion twice. In 1975, he placed third in the All-World Competition, won the junior title in 1976 and won the Senior Men’s World Championship in 1977. Other career highlights include his 1996 tour with the Chieftains and his appearance in the 1998 Disney feature film “Mafia,” where he was joined by some of his exceptional students.
Helen Gallagher is known as “Maeve Ryan” to millions of viewers of ABC’s daytime series “Ryan’s Hope,” for which she won three Emmys and a fourth nomination. She started as a Broadway chorus dancer in “Seven Lively Arts,” “Billion Dollar Baby” and “Brigadoon,” graduated to featured roles in “High Button Shoes,” “Touch and Go” (both on Broadway and in London), “Make a Wish,” “Pal Joey” (for which she won her first Tony Award) and made her first starring role in “Hazel Flagg.” She performed in “Pajama Game” on Broadway, “Guys and Dolls,” “Finian’s Rainbow,” “Brigadoon” and “Oklahoma!” at City Center, nightclubs, television, specials and commercials. The movie “Strangers When We Meet” and stock appearances in “South Pacific,” “Annie Get Your Gun,” “On the Town,” “Carnival,” “Damn Yankees” and “Redhead” followed. She returned to Broadway as Gwen Verdon’s sidekick Nickie in “Sweet Charity,” which earned her a Tony nomination, and she inherited the starring role when Verdon exited. Gallagher also performed in “Mame,” “Cry For Us All” and “No, No, Nanette,” which won her a second Tony. Recent television appearances include “Law and Order,” “All My Children” and “Cosby Mysteries.”