ASO audience to pick pops

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra presents People’s Choice, the fourth concert of the ACXIOM Pops Live! Series, on March 17 at 8 p.m. and March 18 at 3 p.m. at the Robinson Center Music Hall. This concert is sponsored in part by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and JPMS Cox.

Music Director, Philip Mann, conducts this concert where the audience chooses the program. Patrons can cast their votes at www.ArkansasSymphony.org/vote or at the ASO Box Office and the winning pieces will be announced and played at the performance – just like an awards ceremony. KTHV anchors Craig O’Neill and Dawn Scott will serve as emcees for this event. Dr. Richard Wheeler, Professor of Medicine and Executive Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Medicine at UAMS will be guest conducting a piece on the program through the Maestro’s Baton live auction item from this year’s Opus Ball.

Kids kindergarten through 12^th grade can attend our Sunday matinee performances for free (with the purchase of an adult ticket) using the Entergy Kids Ticket – available for download at www.ArkansasSymphony.org. Adult single tickets range from $20-$65 and can be purchased online at www.ArkansasSymphony.org or over the phone at (501) 666-1761. Student and military tickets are $10.

 Program Details

PEOPLE’S CHOICE

Saturday, March 17 at 8 p.m.

Sunday, March 18 at 3 p.m.

Robinson Center Music Hall

Featuring

Craig O’Neill, emcee

Dawn Scott, emcee

Dr. Richard Wheeler, guest conductor – Opus Ball Maestro’s Baton Winner

Philip Mann, conductor

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra

Program will feature one winning piece in each of the following categories:

Best Television Show

Hawaii 5-0

The Young and The Restless

Mission Impossible

Bonanza

Best Sci-Fi Soundtrack

Back to the Future

Star Trek

Star Wars

E.T. The Extra Terrestrial

Best Classical Composer

Vivaldi – The Four Seasons

Gershwin – Summertime

Beethoven – Symphony No. 5, First Movement

Mozart – Eine kleine Nachtmusik

Tchaikovsky – Romeo and Juliet Overture

Kid’s Pick

Mary Poppins

The Little Mermaid

Peanuts

Cinderella

Anastasia

Best Contemporary Film Score (post 1970)

Titanic

Harry Potter

Pirates of the Caribbean

The Godfather

Gladiator

INTERMISSION

Best Animated Television Show

            Looney Tunes

            The Flintstones

            The Jetsons

            The Simpsons

Best Broadway Score

            The Sound of Music

            West Side Story

            Les Miserables

            The Phantom of the Opera

Best Video Game Soundtrack

            Civilization

            Halo

            World of Warcraft

            Mario Brothers

            Legend of Zelda

Best Classic Film Score (pre 1970)

            James Bond

            Pink Panther

            Lawrence of Arabia

            Wizard of Oz

Dr. Richard Wheeler, guest conductor

Richard Wheeler, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Executive Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) is from Fayetteville, Arkansas. Dr. Wheeler received a BA degree in Psychology from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and an MD degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Medicine. He completed residency training in Internal Medicine and Nephrology, and is board certified in both specialties. While a resident in Medicine, Dr. Wheeler became interested in medical education. He was in charge of the student and resident training programs in the Department of Internal Medicine for several years. He practiced medicine and also served as the Medical Director of Dialysis for UAMS. He joined the College of Medicine Dean’s office in 1987. Dr Wheeler’s office is in charge of all aspects of education in the College of Medicine. He is a “Fellow” of the American College of Physicians and recently served as the National Chair of the Group on Student Affairs for the Association of American Medical Colleges. His interest in music began in grade school when he started playing saxophone, and he continued playing all the way through the Razorback Band in college. He is married to Elizabeth Lyon Wheeler, the Principal English Horn for the Arkansas Symphony, and they are the proud “parents” of two ragdoll cats, Simon and JB. Dr. Wheeler is the Vice-Chair for Development of the ASO Board. This is the third time Dr. Wheeler has conducted the ASO.

Philip Mann, Music Director

Hailed by the BBC as a "talent to watch out for, who conveys a mature command of his forces," American conductor Philip Mann is quickly gaining a reputation as an "expressively graceful yet passionate" artist on three continents. Newly appointed as music director of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, he also serves as the San Diego Symphony's Associate Conductor and formerly an American Conducting Fellow/assistant conductor, where he has conducted over 200 performances of Jacobs Subscription Masterworks, Symphony Exposed, family, young people's concerts, Kinder Konzert, pops, and other special programs.

His most recent subscription appearance was described by the San Diego Union Tribune, "Mann was masterful. A skilled musical architect, designing and executing a beautifully paced interpretation, which seemed to spring from somewhere deep within the music rather than superimposed upon it." The winner of the Vienna Philharmonic's Karajan Fellowship at the Salzburg Festival, he has served as cover conductor for the Cleveland Orchestra and as the Schmidt Conducting Fellow of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Mann has worked with leading artists such as Joshua Bell, Sharon Isbin, Marvin Hamlisch and given world premiers of major composers including John Corigliano. He maintains a lively schedule as a guest conductor having conducted at New York's Avery Fischer Hall and London's Barbican Center. Active in symphonic, operatic, and new music repertories, he has served as music director of the Oxford City Opera and Oxford Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra.

Elected a Rhodes Scholar, Mann studied and taught at Oxford, and won the annual competition to become principal conductor of the Oxford University Philharmonia. Under his leadership, the Philharmonia's performances and tours received international press and acclaim. Mann studied with Alan Hazeldine of London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Colin Metters at the Royal Academy of Music, and Marios Papadopolous of the Oxford Philomusica. He worked with Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center.s National Conducting Institute and Michael Tilson Thomas at the New World Symphony. Mentorship with Esa-Pekka Salonen and Jorma Panula followed at the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Conducting Masterclasses. He has also worked under Imre Pallo, David Effron, John Poole, and Thomas Baldner at Indiana University where he was appointed visiting lecturer in orchestral conducting, and worked as assistant conductor at the IU Opera Theater. Additional studies came under the Bolshoi Theater's music director, Alexander Vedernikov at the Moscow State Conservatory, Gustav Meir, Kenneth Keisler, and with Pulitzer Prize winning composer Robert Ward.

Trained as a violinist, Mann has appeared as a soloist, concertmaster, and chamber player in the USA and abroad. He is the recipient of numerous awards including commendations from several cities, and the state of California.

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 46^th season in 2011-2012 under the leadership of Music Director Philip Mann. ASO is the resident orchestra of Robinson Center Music Hall, and performs more than thirty concerts each year through its Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks Series, ACXIOM Pops LIVE! Series and River Rhapsodies Chamber Series, in addition to serving central Arkansas through numerous community outreach programs and bringing live symphonic music education to over 20,000 school children and over 200 schools.