The 2015 CSO Youth Orchestras
The Chattanooga Symphony & Opera Youth Orchestras open their 2015/16 season on Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Ringgold High School with a concert performed by the Symphony Orchestra with Gary Wilkes conducting.
Also featured in the program is CSOYO alumna Dr. Shannon Thomas (Professor of Violin at Florida State University), and second place winner of the 2015 Concerto Competition, Sasha Hitachi-Kizziah. Other selections to be performed by the Symphony include the final movement of Dvorak’s 8th Symphony and the Suite No. 2 from Carmen.
The CSOYO is celebrating its 30th season with a variety of activities designed to honor the many musicians who have been members over that period of time. Although there have been previous manifestations of a youth orchestra in Chattanooga, there was a lapse of several years until the Chattanooga Symphony and Chattanooga Opera merged into one company. With the leadership of Mary Barker, Linda Pennebaker, Kay Smith, Sandy Morris, and Linda Thompson, the new youth orchestra, under the auspices of the Chattanooga Symphony &
Opera, was organized and launched on its 30-year adventure in the fall of 1986.
The CSOYO Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sandy Morris, will open the concert with a variety of works, from excerpts of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker to Robert W. Smith’s contemporary composition, Into the Storm (composed after the blizzard of 1993). Also featured will be the final movement of Brahms’s First Symphony.
CSOYO Fall Concert
Monday, November 9, 2015 at 7:30pm
Ringgold High School Auditorium
Sandy Morris, conductor, CSOYO Philharmonic Orchestra
Gary Wilkes, conductor, CSOYO Symphony Orchestra
Tickets are $6 for adults, $4 for children, students, and seniors, and will be available at the door. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Call 267-9011 for more information.
About Dr. Shannon Thomas
A Tennessee native, violinist Shannon Thomas has garnered a reputation for exciting, thoughtful performances as a chamber musician, soloist, and in recital throughout the United States and abroad. Recent performing engagements have taken her to the Kennedy Center, Spoleto Festival USA, Carnegie Hall, and the Banff Centre where she has collaborated with artists such as the St. Lawrence String Quartet, David Halen, Richard King, Wendy Chen, and Anita Pontremoli. In addition to concerts with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra and Naples Philharmonic, Dr. Thomas performs regularly with the IRIS Orchestra under the direction of Michael Stern. She has performed at festivals around the country including Kneisel Hall, ENCORE School for Strings, Sarasota Music Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival, working with musicians such as Joseph Silverstein, Laurie Smukler, Robert Lipsett, and members of the Juilliard, Blair, and Cavani String Quartets.
Interested in sharing her enthusiasm for the arts through teaching, Dr. Thomas is in demand as a rising pedagogue. Currently assistant professor of Violin at Florida State University, she has also been on the faculties at University of Southern Mississippi, the Cleveland Institute of Music Preparatory Division, Interlochen Arts Camp, and Lee University. Her students have been
prizewinners and finalists at national competitions, including MMTA and the Sphinx Competition. She is on the violin and chamber music faculty of the Kinhaven Music School and serves as Education Director of the Innsbrook Institute Summer Music Academy and Festival.
Dr. Thomas earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she served as Paul Kantor’s teaching assistant. She received a Master of Music at Yale University and a Bachelor of Music at Vanderbilt University, and also pursued graduate work at Arizona State University, where she was the first student to be accepted into the Artist Diploma program. Her principal teachers have included Paul Kantor, Cornelia Heard, Jonathan Swartz, and Ani Kavafian. For more information, visit shannonthomasviolin.com
About Sasha Hitachi-Kizziah
Sasha Hitachi-Kizziah is currently a seventh grader at the Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences. She began studying the piano at the age of four. At seven, she learned the recorder, playing with her school’s (St. Nicholas) music teacher, Carey Shinbaum. Sasha began studying the flute with Dr. Heather Small at the age of nine. Two years later, she auditioned for the CSOYO, and became first chair flute for the Philharmonic. She currently serves as second chair in the Youth Symphony. Sasha has performed in a master class with Dr. Mary Karen Clardy, participated in a flute clinic with Patricia George, and won second prize in the Atlanta Flute Club Junior Artist competition. Other accomplishments include performer at the 2013 Mid-South Flute Festival junior showcase/ master class in Murfreesboro, Tn. and first chair placement in the blue band for all county. She enjoys reading, horseback riding, and playing the harp in her spare time.