Lima, OH (September 30, 2022) – The Lima Symphony Orchestra returns to the concert stage for their 2022-2023 season opener on Saturday, October 22 at 7:30 PM at the Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center (7 Town Square, Lima, OH 45801) for “Folklore and Fusion.” The program will be led by Music Director Andrew Crust and feature the world-renowned tabla soloist Sandeep Das.
This captivating program tells tales from the near to far East through musical fantasy. Opening the program are the subtle and varied sounds of the Indian tabla, performed by master tabla player Sandeep Das in Wijeratne’s Concerto for Tabla and Orchestra. Completing this musical voyage is Rimsky-Korsakov’s romantic masterpiece Scheherazade, featuring Lima Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Michael Houff on violin, inspired by folklore from One Thousand and One Arabian Nights.
The 2022-2023 season is the Lima Symphony’s most eclectic season yet, and the third for Music Director Andrew Crust. This season brings to the stage voices of new and old, classical and popular, reinvented and reimagined. The season will feature world-class guest artists, as well as LSO musicians and the LSO Symphony Chorus.
“Our LSO season-opening program this year is one that I’ve been excited about for a very long time,” says Music Director Andrew Crust. “Not only does it feature one of the all-time greatest orchestral showpieces, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, but we’ll also be joined by one of the world’s great masters of Indian music, Sandeep Das. Sandeep is a virtuoso tabla player, a founding member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Grammy Award Winning Silk Road Ensemble, and a fantastic storyteller from the stage. This program will be extraordinarily colorful, imbued with sounds from the far and Middle East, a journey inside the exotic and ancient tales of 1,001 Arabian Nights, and the LSO is sure to sparkle in this incredible repertoire. It’s a concert not to be missed!”
UNDERWRITER:
Superior Credit Union
GUEST ARTIST SPONSOR:
India Club Inc.
REPERTOIRE:
Dinuk Wijeratne - Concerto for Tabla and Orchestra
Sandeep Das, tabla solo
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – Scheherazade
Michael Houff, violin solo
Tickets:
$45/$35 adults
$15/$10 student (call office for student tickets)
Tickets can be purchased online at www.limasymphony.com or by calling the symphony office at 419-222-5701. Program books are available digitally through the LSO website.
The Lima Symphony Orchestra is dedicated to preserving musical excellence as a living part of our community. Serving communities throughout West Central Ohio, the Lima Symphony annually presents five subscription concerts, a family concert, Music by Candlelight concerts and an annual New Year’s Eve Pops concert.
For more information about the Lima Symphony Orchestra or for tickets, please contact the Lima Symphony at 419-222-5701 or www.limasymphony.com.
Sandeep Das
A Guggenheim Fellow and Grammy-winning musician, Sandeep Das is one of the leading Tabla virtuosos in the world today. Since his debut concert at the age of 17 with legendary Sitar player Ravi Shankar, Das has established himself as one of India’s leading Tabla maestros, building a prolific international reputation spanning over three decades. Das has collaborated with top musicians and ensembles from across the world such as Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, with whom he has performed for the past 21 years, as well as Paquito D’Rivera, Bobby McFarin, and iconic orchestras like the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, and Chicago Symphony, among others. His original compositions have been performed in over 50 countries, including events at the Forbidden City Concert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Sydney Opera House; for the 150th anniversary of the United Nations; and by university and children’s ensembles across the globe.
Das is the founder of Harmony and Universality through Music (HUM), a nonprofit organization in India that has promoted global understanding through music performance and provided learning opportunities and scholarships for visually-impaired children with artistic potential since 2009. Passionate about sharing his ideas and experiences, Das has presented at The New York Encounter, The EG Conference, TEDx events, and multiple university residencies. In 2015, he established Das Tabla School, where he currently trains musicians from 6+ countries both online and in-person in Boston, MA. To learn more about him, please visit www.sandeepdas.com.
Heritage
Das is an exponent of the Benares Gharana (school) of Tabla, which was established in the 1700s by Pt. Ram Sahai in continuation of an Indian drumming tradition that has been passed down from Guru (teacher) to Shishya (student) for millennia. Starting at the age of 7, Das trained intensely for 12 years in the ancient “Guru-Shishya Parampara” by living with his Guru, the legendary Pt. Kishan Maharaj of Benares, India, and learning and practicing music as a way of life, rather than an isolated art form.
After establishing himself as an artist and receiving the directive from his Guru, Das began teaching disciples in India the same way he had been taught– orally, without the use of books or notations. His teaching activities continued throughout his career, and he formally founded Das Tabla School (DTS) shortly after moving to the US in 2015. Today, DTS maintains an active community of disciples who learn from Das in Boston, MA, in addition to many who call in from across the US and internationally from countries such as India, China, Australia, and Canada. In 2017, DTS held the first “Das Music Camp,” which has since become an annual Indian Classical Music intensive that takes place for several days each year in the Northeastern US, and allows musicians, composers, and dancers of all skill levels and genres to learn from Das and other renowned faculty in a manner very similar to the traditional Guru-Shishya Parampara.
Das’ training and life experiences provide a unique educational opportunity for students and ensembles to learn from, and he frequently gives masterclasses and residencies at schools and universities throughout the world such as Dartmouth, Brandeis, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Clara, College of the Holy Cross, Juilliard School of Music, Berklee College of Music, and UC British Columbia. He has also taught at the annual Arts and Passion Driven Learning Institute at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for the past 8 years, and has been a keynote speaker or invited speaker at other prestigious events such the New York Encounter, the annual E.G. Conference in California, the Abu Dhabi Cultural Summit in the United Arab Emirates, the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art’s Asian Cultural Heritage Month, and the United States Citizenship Naturalization Ceremony at Faneuil Hall, Boston, MA.
Michael Houff
Michael Houff earned his undergraduate degree from the Conservatory of Music at Baldwin Wallace University where he studied with Gary Kosloski. He attended the Cleveland Institute of Music for post graduate studies where he studied with David Russell and Peter Salaff.
In addition to his role of concertmaster for the Lima Symphony Orchestra, Houff performs regularly with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, Canton Symphony, and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. He has performed with orchestras in Springfield, Erie, Ashland, Mansfield, Toledo, and the Nienburger Kammer Orchestra in Germany.
Houff was a founding member of the New Century Quartet and is currently first violinist with the Amphion’s String Quartet. His quartet performances have been featured on WCLV Cleveland and WGTE Toledo and he performs regularly throughout northeast Ohio. Houff is also a Nashville recording artist and has been featured as both an arranger and performer by bands both locally and nationally. He toured with Shameless, a Garth Brooks Tribute band.
Houff is in-demand as a clinician in schools across northeast Ohio and is involved with multiple summer music camp programs. He is currently on faculty at the Conservatory of Music at Hudson Montessori School and maintains a private violin and viola teaching studio in Broadview Heights, Ohio.
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