Mitchell Arnold, the new interim conductor of the West Virginia University Symphony Orchestra, will join the ensemble for its first concert of the season at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27, in the Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre at the Creative Arts Center on the Evansdale Campus.
C.B. Wilson of the WVU music faculty, who also currently serves as WVU associate provost for academic personnel, will join the Symphony as a guest conductor, and his son, Peter Wilson, will be guest violin soloist.
Also joining them will be WVU music faculty member Andrew Kohn, bassist.
The Wilsons will perform on the Morgantown premiere ofDouble Concerto for Violin and Contrabassby WVU composer-in-residence John Beall. Peter Wilson also performed on the World Premiere of this work, which was composed for his duo calledBridging the Gap.
The program will feature Antonn Dvorks Symphony No. 9From the New WorldandProcession of the Noblesby Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Arnold, who is visiting associate professor and director of Orchestral Activities at WVU for the 2007-2008 year, has served on the faculties of Northern Illinois University as director of orchestras, Northwestern University as assistant director of orchestras, Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music and Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.
As a frequent conductor of the Santa Fe Symphony, he conducted on the gala opening concert of Santa Fes newly renovated Lensic Center for the Performing Arts.
Other engagements include the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, the Spoleto Festival USA , the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, the Omaha Symphony, the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chicago Chamber Orchestra.
He was the founder and conductor of Chicagos acclaimed Pitzen Brass Ensemble.
Arnold has an extensive background in new music. For many years he was a composing and performing member of the noted Chicago-based ensemble, Kapture, and was one of the founding directors of New Music Chicago, a non-profit, new music advocacy organization.
C.B. Wilson received his doctorate from Case Western Reserve University and his masters and bachelors (with highest distinction) from Northwestern University.
Prior to coming to WVU , where he served as chair of music, he was on the faculties of Northwestern University, Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Peter Wilson looks forward to coming home and notes that the last time he performed with the WVU Symphony was in 1986 when Don Portnoy was the conductor.
Mostly importantly, he is honored to be collaborating with his father.
The Wilson family also includes his mother, Mary Wilson, a noted violinist who has taught for many years in the WVU Community Music Program, and with whom he began studying the violin at age two.
Peter Wilson went on to earn a bachelor of music degree from Northwestern University and two graduate degrees from Catholic University. He was also the first musician to receive the West Virginia Governors Award for Exceptional Achievement in the Arts.
He is an engaging and multifaceted performer whose violin solos have been noted asfirst classby The Washington Post. He is a Master Gunnery Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps serving withThe Presidents OwnUnited States Marine Band, as a violinist of The White House and Commander-designate of the Marine String Section. He has made regular appearances at the Executive Mansion since 1990 and also makes frequent appearances as guest conductor with the National Gallery Orchestra of Washington, D.C. and throughout the United States as a conductor, concertmaster, violin soloist and performance clinician.
He has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, and he has appeared as a soloist with such renowned artists as Rosemary Clooney and Renée Fleming.
In addition, he has performed in orchestras backing up such legends as Ray Charles, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Johnny Mathis and Joni Mitchell, as well as Jimmy Page and Robert Plant in their Zeppelin UnLEDed World Tour.
Moreover, Peter Wilson and a U.S. Marine Band colleague, bassist Aaron Clay who is a native of Fairmont, W.Va., founded the duoBridging the Gapin 1997. They are popular in the Washington Metropolitan Region and in their home state, performing in venues from school classrooms and private homes to concert halls and stadiums.
In addition, they have become frequent guests of theMillennium Stageat the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and have appeared on the Jazz Series of the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
Bridging the Gapwas originally scheduled to appear on this concert; however, due to special circumstances, Clay is being replaced on the program by WVU music faculty member Andrew Kohn, also an outstanding and popular performer in region.
Kohn holds an Artist Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with Eugene Levinson, and a doctorate in music theory and composition from the University of Pittsburgh. He is the former principal bassist of the National Chamber Orchestra and the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra and currently plays in the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Opera orchestras.
Tickets for the concert are $10 for general admission, $6 for WVU faculty, staff and senior citizens, and $5 for students and children.
For tickets and information, call the WVU Box Office at 304-293-SHOW.