Symphosium

In this episode, we sit down with Music Director Christopher Wilkins to talk about our 2021-22 concert season, which continues our commitment to presenting a diverse musical experience to Northeast Ohio.

With classics from Beethoven’s Fifth to Handel’s Water Music, jazz-influenced works by Duke Ellington and Aldemaro Romero, innovative works for Korean dancers and a collaboration with Akron-based EarthQuaker Devices, and a spotlight on composers who deserve greater recognition like Florence Price, Julia Perry and William Dawson, the upcoming season is filled  variety and vitality.

The episode also includes a few samples of the music that we will perform during the season.

The full concert schedule, along with information about subscriptions and single tickets, is available on the Akron Symphony’s website.

In this episode, we are joined by co-host Ken Heinlein, principal tuba of the ASO, for a talk with composer David Biedenbender about his career, his influences and his music.

The Akron Symphony will perform David’s Kyrie (for Machaut and Pärt) as part of its Outside Voices Concert Series in the summer of 2021.

David Biedenbender, a composer, conductor, performer, educator, and interdisciplinary collaborator. He has written music for the concert stage as well as for dance and multimedia collaborations, and his work is often influenced by his diverse musical experiences in rock and jazz bands as an electric bassist, in wind, jazz, and New Orleans-style brass bands as a euphonium, bass trombone, and tuba player, and by his study of Indian Carnatic music.

His creative interests include working with everyone from classically trained musicians to improvisers, acoustic chamber music to large ensembles, and interactive electronic interfaces to live brain data.

In addition to composing, David is a dedicated teacher and is currently an Associate Professor of Composition in the College of Music at Michigan State University.

Learn more about David’s work on his website, and follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

In this episode, we sit down with Matt Dudack, who has been a member of our percussion section since 2000, to talk about his career in music, the history (and his love) of the steel drum, the best drummers of all time, and more as part of our ASO Conversation series.

Matt Dudack is a senior lecturer in music at The University of Akron School of Music Percussion Department and the Artistic Director of The University of Akron Steel Drum Band. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from the Hartt School and a master’s degree in percussion performance from The University of Akron. 

Under his direction The University of Akron Steel Drum Band has received many accolades, including Grammy and Emmy award nominations, and has performed for such dignitaries as President Bill Clinton and (then candidate) Barack Obama. 

Matt is co-founder of the Akros Percussion Collective, a chamber group which performs contemporary music internationally. He also leads Found Sounds, a group which performs in-school educational concerts for the Children's Concert Society of Summit County  and throughout Northeast Ohio. He is also on the faculties of the Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts in Akron and Canton Country Day School in Canton. 

To learn more the Akron Symphony, including our Outdoor Voices Concert series, visit out website.

In this episode, we sit down with Music Director Christopher Wilkins to talk about the Akron Symphony Orchestra’s return to the concert stage after 16 months with the Outside Voices Concert Series.

The six-concert series will be presented free of charge throughout the Akron community this summer, and focus on the music of under-represented composers who are “outside” of the standard repertoire, along with numerous audience favorites.

The full concert concert schedule, along with other information about the series, is available on the Akron Symphony’s website.

In this episode, we sit down with John Gruber, our principal trombone player who has been a member of the Orchestra since 2018, to talk about his career in music, Mozart’s use of the trombone in his compositions, the craft beer scene in Akron, the merits of Star Trek and more as part of our ASO Conversation series.

In addition to the ASO, John also serves as principal trombonist with the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, as well as second trombone in the Lansing Symphony Orchestra. 

John is an assistant professor of trombone at Oberlin College & Conservatory, and his teaching career has included posts at Ohio State University, Siena Heights University, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Civic Youth Ensembles, and the public school system in Barnesville, Ohio, where he served as band director. He is also a faculty member of the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.

To hear a performance from John, check out Oberlin’s YouTube channel for a faculty recital featuring John and Jeff Scott, associate professor of French horns.

To learn more about all the ways that you can experience the Akron Symphony, visit our ASO at Home page. There you will find musical performances, musician interviews, podcast episodes, and a variety of educational resources.

In this episode, we sit down with Heidi Aufdenkamp Peck, a clarinet player with the Akron Symphony Orchestra since 1994, to talk about her career in music, her tenure with the ASO, what she has been working on during the past year, and more as part of our ASO Conversation series.

Heidi Aufdenkamp Peck is a professional clarinet player in the Akron Symphony Orchestra and private lesson teacher. 

Heidi earned her master’s degree from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Fred Ormand. Her bachelor’s degree is from The University of Akron, where she studied with David Bell. While attending Louisville High School, she studied with Dan Roberdeau. Other teachers include Mark Nuccio, Ron Samuels, and John Weigand.

Heidi’s performing groups have included a tour with Barry Manilow and the Youngstown Symphony in 2012, a soloist with the University of Pittsburgh Chamber Orchestra, the Canton Symphony Orchestra, the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, and the woodwind quintet Cincopation. Learn more about Heidi at her website or on her YouTube channel.

To learn more about all the ways that you can experience the Akron Symphony, visit our ASO at Home page. There you will find musical performances, musician interviews, podcast episodes, and a variety of educational resources.

In this episode, Akron Symphony bassist Brian Del Bianco talks about his experience recording with effects pedals from EarthQuaker Devices.

Brian recorded Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Sonata for Unaccompanied Bass (movement 3), Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (movement 1), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (movement 4) and Giovanni Bottesini’s Variations on Nel Cor Piu Non Mi Sento (variation 2 excerpt) using the Night Wire, Spatial Delivery and Disaster Transport Senior pedals.

You can see Brian’s full video on EarthQuaker’s YouTube page. The performance was recorded and mixed by Jeff France, and shot and edited by Chris Tran at EarthQuaker Studios in Akron. Learn more about EarthQuaker at their website.

This is the third episode in our ASO Goes Electric series with EarthQuaker Devices. Previous episodes featured violinist Sam Petrey and and violinist Kimia Ghaderi.

To learn more about all the ways that you can experience the Akron Symphony, visit the ASO at Home page on our website. There you will find musical performances, musician interviews, podcast episodes, and a variety of educational resources.

In this episode, we sit down with Pablo Sánchez-Pazos, a violinist with the Akron Symphony Orchestra, to talk about his career in music, his first season with the ASO, what he has been working on during the past year, and more as part of our ASO Conversation series.

The episode concludes with Pablo’s solo performance of Bach’s Chaconne from Partita No. 2.

Pablo Sánchez-Pazos is a violinist based in Cleveland. Born and raised in Montemorelos, México, Pablo began his studies at a young age as a student at the Conservatory of Music in Montemorelos, during which time he was a prize winner of the national Tomás Ruiz Ovalle competition in Zacatecas, México.

As an avid chamber music player, Pablo enjoys playing chamber music with his quartet,  Antares, and has received instruction from members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as well as members of the Takácks, Euclid and Latinoamericano string quartets. Pablo has received fellowships to attend the Aspen Music Festival and the Rocky Ridge Music Festival.

Pablo is a graduate student at the Cleveland Institute of Music where he studies under Stephen Rose, as well as having chamber music sessions with numerous coaches, including Ilya Kaler, Keith Robinson and Si-Yan Darren Li.

To learn more about all the ways that you can experience the Akron Symphony, visit our ASO at Home page. There you will find musical performances, musician interviews, podcast episodes, and a variety of educational resources.

In this episode, Akron Symphony violinist Kimia Ghaderi talks about her experience recording with effects pedals from EarthQuaker Devices.

Kimia recorded the Allegro from Bach’s Sonata No. 2 in A Minor, Saman by Ólafur Arnalds, an excerpt of Blue Curve of the Earth by Tina Davidson, and an excerpt of the Andante from Bach’s Sonata No. 2 in A Minor using using the Avalanche Run and Plumes pedals.

You can see Kimia’s full video on EarthQuaker’s YouTube page. The performance was recorded and mixed by Jeff France, and shot and edited by Chris Tran at EarthQuaker Studios in Akron. Learn more about EarthQuaker at their website.

This is the second episode in our ASO Goes Electric series with EarthQuaker Devices. The first episode featured violinist Sam Petrey and you may view his video here.

To learn more about all the ways that you can experience the Akron Symphony, visit the ASO at Home page on our website. There you will find musical performances, musician interviews, podcast episodes, and a variety of educational resources.

In this episode, Tom is joined by special co-host Jerry Miskell for an interview with author Stephen Johnson about his latest work, The Eighth: Mahler and the World in 1910, which was named one of the best books about classical music in 2020 by the BBC.

In the book, Stephen recounts the far-reaching effect of Mahler’s 8th Symphony on composers, conductors and writers of the time. Stephen re-assesses Mahler’s thoughts in the context of the prevailing thought of his age, not only in relation to the artistic and intellectual movements of the time, but through consideration of political climate and historical background, and on into science, medicine, technology, mass entertainment, and even the development of modern PR.

Stephen Johnson is an author, composer and broadcaster, and has been called “The authoritative British voice of classical music.” He has been a frequent broadcaster for BBC Radio 3, Radio 4 and World Service, and has written regularly for the Independent, the Guardian, BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone. (Learn more at Stephen’s website.)

Jerry Miskell is a viola player with the Akron Symphony Orchestra and chair of the music department at Mount Union University, where among his many duties he teaches an advanced class called Hearing Heaven: Death, Dying and Afterlife in the Music of Gustav Mahler. The 8th Symphony remains Jerry’s favorite work by Mahler, although it remains just one of the two he has not performed professionally.

To learn more about all the ways that you can experience the Akron Symphony, visit our ASO at Home page. There you will find musical performances, musician interviews, podcast episodes, and a variety of educational resources.