Pianist performs with orchestra as season begins
BUTLER TWP — The Butler County Symphony Orchestra opens its 67th season with an Oct. 3 concert.
Pianist Cahill Smith will be the guest artist and will perform Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 23, K. 488 in A Major” with the orchestra.
Born and raised in rural Alabama, Smith began playing at age 10. At 16, he made his orchestral debut.
He has been featured as a concerto soloist with the National Ukrainian Symphony Orchestra in Kiev, the Eastman Philharmonia, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, and the Shoals Symphony Orchestra, among others.
His solo performances have taken him to the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Royal Dublin Society’s Concert Hall, Hatch Halls at the Eastman School of Music, the Aspen Music Festival’s Harris Hall, and the Britton Recital Hall in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Smith completed his doctorate of musical arts at the Eastman School of Music, his master’s degree at the University of Michigan, and his bachelor’s at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
He serves on the piano faculty at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn.
Selections for the evening also will include the “William Tell Overture” by Rossini and “Symphony No. 5 in D Minor” by Shostakovich.
Butler Symphony music director and conductor Matthew Kraemer will present a pre-concert lecture at 6:30 p.m.
The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Butler Intermediate High School auditorium, 551 Fairground Hill Road.
Tickets are available at the symphony office, 259 S. Main St., by calling 724-283-1402, or at www.ShowClix.com Tickets are $23 for adults and $5.50 for students, which includes a handling fee.
The concert is being sponsored by Stantec in memory of Dick Rittelmann and Alva Hill.
Preseason fundraising eventIn advance of the opening concert, the Butler symphony is hosting a fundraising performance with guests Jim Pugh, William Purvis and Stephen Heyde, all Butler County natives, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Community Alliance Church on Mercer Road.The evening will feature selections that highlight the talents of these individuals.Tickets for the fundraiser are $20 for adults and $10 for students and are available from any symphony board member or at the symphony office, Fudoli Music & Repair Center, May’s Music Shoppe and Meridian Station, or at ShowClix.com. Proceeds benefit the symphony.
