Hear Wicked voices at ASO

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra presents Wicked Divas, the fifth concert of the ACXIOM Pops Live! Series, on May 12 at 8 p.m. and May 13 at 3 p.m. at the Robinson Center Music Hall. This concert is sponsored in part by Aristotle.

Associate Conductor, Geoffrey Robson, Broadway vocalists Emily Rozek and Eden Espinosa, and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra will perform selections from My Fair Lady, Ragtime, Chicago, Titanic, and Wicked. Rozek has performed as Glinda in the Los Angeles production of Wicked and Eden Espinosa was Elphaba in the Broadway, Los Angeles, and San Francisco productions.

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

WICKED DIVAS

Saturday, May 12 at 8 p.m.

Sunday, May 13 at 3 p.m.

Robinson Center Music Hall

Featuring

Emily Rozek, vocalist

Eden Espinosa, vocalist

Geoffrey Robson, conductor

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra

Program:

JULE STYNE     Overture to Gypsy     arr. Robert Russell Bennett

GEORGES BIZET     Selections from Carmen

Prelude to Act I, from Suite No. 1

Aragonaise, from Suite No. 1

Habanera, from Suite No. 2

Les Toreadors, from Suite No. 1            

JOHN KANDER     Introduction and “All That Jazz” from Chicago

Orch. Paul McKibbins     (Emily Rozek & Eden Espinosa)

ALAN JAY LERNER &     “I Could Have Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady

FREDERICK LOEWE     (Emily Rozek)

STEPHEN FLAHERTY     “Back to Before” from Ragtime     (Eden Espinosa)

STEPHEN FLAHERTY     “Ragtime” from Ragtime     arr. Steven Reineke

ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER     “Think Of Me” from Phantom of the Opera

Arr. D. Cullen     (Emily Rozek)

JOHN KANDER & FRED EBB     Ring Them Bells

Arr. Paul McKibbins     (Eden Espinosa)

ENRIQUE GARCIA     Conga     Steven Reineke

INTERMISSION

VARIOUS     I Hear a Symphony:

Arr. Steven Reineke     Symphonic Sounds of Diana Ross

PAUL JABARA &     No More Tears (Enough is Enough)  

BRUCE ROBERTS     (Eden Espinosa and Emily Rozek)

Arr. Fred Barton

JAMES HORNER &     “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic

WILL JENNINGS     (Emily Rozek)

Arr. Steven Reineke

DU PRUZ/ERIC IDLE     “Diva’s Lament” from Spamalot      

Arr. T. Firth     (Eden Espinosa)

HAROLD ARLEN &     “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz

YIP HARBURG     Arr. Skitch Henderson/Dick Lieb

STEPHEN SCHWARTZ     “Popular” from Wicked           

Arr. William David Brohn     (Emily Rozek)

STEPHEN SCHWARTZ     “Defying Gravity” from Wicked

Arr. Randall Craig Fleischer     (Eden Espinosa)

STEPHEN SCHWARTZ     “For Good” from Wicked        

Orch. Torrie Ziyo     (Emily Rozek and Eden Espinosa)

Emily Rozek, vocalist

Emily has been a professional Broadway performer for the past 10 years. She was most recently seen starring as Glinda in the Los Angeles production of Wicked. Upon her graduation from the Boston Conservatory she made her professional debut as the principle role of Winnie Tate in Annie Get Your Gun starring Bernadette Peters. She went on to understudy and perform the lead roles of Millie Dillmount and Miss Dorothy in Broadway’s Thoroughly Modern Millie. She has also been on National Broadway tours such as Sunset Boulevard as Mary and South Pacific as the Nellie Forbush understudy. Regional Credits include Marta in Company, staring with acclaimed and award winning actress Donna Mckechnie, Maggie in Chorus Line, Lizzie in Baby and, most recently, Polly in Crazy for You.


She has spent the past 4 years in Los Angeles making appearances in various concerts such as Two’s Company, a tribute to the great composers, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. She was also featured in the Ford Theatre’s Broadway Unplugged Concert.


She currently resides in sunny California with her husband, Steve and 2 beautiful babies, Zachary and Isabelle. In between professional acting gigs, she coaches and teaches in Beverly Hills, Hollywood and Pallos Verdes. She feels fortunate to be working consistently in a field in which she was born and raised and continues to love.

Eden Espinosa, vocalist

Eden Espinosa was born and raised in Southern California. She is most recognized for her portrayal of Elphaba in the Broadway production of "Wicked.” She has also performed the role of the green witch in both Los Angeles and San Francisco to critical acclaim.


Other musical theater accomplishments include originating the title character in “Brooklyn the Musical” from the original workshop through its Broadway run, starring as Flora in the Reprise Theater Company’s production of “Flora the Red Menace,” and playing Maureen in the closing company of “Rent,” the final performance of which was filmed live for Sony, and is available on DVD and Blu-ray.


Eden is also well recognized from her many television appearances on shows such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Good Morning America, The Today Show, The 2008 Tony Awards, The 2008 Alma Awards performing with Bebe Winans, Law and Order, and Ugly Betty. Her voiceover credits include several episodes of Robot Chicken, MAD TV, and Sasha Caylo in Titan Maximum


Known for her powerful and emotionally charged vocal style, she was the featured soloist in “Magical,” the fireworks spectacular at the Disneyland Resort and can be heard on such recordings as “Hair” (BCEFA benefit recording), “The Maury Yeston Songbook,” “Bright Lights, Big City,” “John McDaniel Live at Joe’s Pub,” and Scott Alan’s “Dreaming Wide Awake.”


Eden made her solo concert debut in Los Angeles with her show “ME” in December 2008. She then took the show to New York where she performed to four sold out audiences at Joe’s Pub in March 2009. On July 24, 2009, she brought the show back to Los Angeles and performed to a sold out audience at the Ford Amphitheatre, with special guest, Grammy Award-winning and Decca recording artist Paula Cole. In 2010, her show "From Eden With Love" was performed to sold out crowds in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.


Recently she has been seen performing with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and as a featured soloist with the Shanghai Orchestra for the opening of the new Shanghai Culture Square in China.

Geoffrey Robson, Associate Conductor

Geoffrey Robson has been the Associate Conductor of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra since 2008. He also performs as a violinist, frequently appearing in the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s popular River Rhapsodies chamber series as well as performing with Trio Arkansas, with pianist Louis Menendez and cellist David Gerstein. He has designed and conducted numerous ASO subscription series concerts, as well as children’s concerts and special events. As conductor, he has worked with guest artists such as the Beach Boys, Lawrence Hamilton, Timothy Jones, Henrietta Davis, Christiane Noll, Doug LaBrecque, and Calvin Lee. In addition, Robson writes and produces At the Symphony, a concert preview radio series on KLRE Classical 90.5 in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Robson completed his M.M. at Yale University in 2004, studying violin performance with Erick Friedman. In Connecticut, he served as co-concertmaster of the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, and assistant concertmaster of the Waterbury Symphony. Robson also worked as a public schoolteacher in New Haven, CT, and has taught violin, piano, viola, and music theory extensively as a private teacher.

Robson studied orchestral conducting at the Mannes College of Music in New York City under the tutelage of David Hayes. He has twice attended the London Conducting Workshop, an annual course at the Royal College of Music in London, and the International Conducting Festival and Workshop in Zlin, Czech Republic. In 2006, he became a founding member of the Chelsea Symphony, a bold experiment in the structuring of an arts organization, based in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. Robson conducted in the inaugural concert of the Chelsea Symphony, and has since conducted numerous other concerts with the ensemble, including world premieres of two works.

Robson graduated from the honors college at Michigan State University in 2002, where he studied violin performance with Dmitri Berlinsky and I-fu Wang, and conducting with Leon Gregorian.

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.