Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a 2016 population of 71,594, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes where Lake Huron flows into the St. Clair River in the Southwestern Ontario region, which forms the Canada–United States border, directly across from Port Huron, Michigan. The site's natural harbour first attracted the French explorer La Salle. He named the site "The Rapids" on 23 August 1679, when he had horses and men pull his 45-ton barque Le Griffon north against the nearly four-knot current of the St. Clair River.
Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administered separately.
Sir Simon Denis Rattle is a British conductor. He rose to international prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, while music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980–1998). Rattle was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic from 2002 to 2018. He is currently music director of the London Symphony Orchestra, since September 2017. Among the world's leading conductors, in a 2015 Bachtrack poll, he was ranked by music critics as one of the world's best living conductors.
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its primary performance venue is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood. Jader Bignamini is the current music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Leonard Slatkin, the previous music director, is the orchestra's current music director laureate. Neeme Järvi, music director from 1990 to 2005, is the orchestra's current music director emeritus.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) is an American orchestra based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The orchestra's home is Heinz Hall, located in Pittsburgh's Cultural District.
Charles Édouard Dutoit is a Swiss conductor. He is currently the principal guest conductor for the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia and co-director of the MISA Festival in Shanghai. In 2017, he became the 103rd recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal Award. Dutoit held previous positions with the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Tokyo NHK Symphony and the Orchestre National de France. As of 2017, conductor emeritus of the Verbier Music Festival Orchestra. He is an honorary member of the Ravel Foundation in France and the Stravinsky Foundation in Switzerland. In December 2017, following allegations of sexual assault, the Boston and San Francisco Symphonies cancelled his engagements. In a statement, Dutoit denied the charges.
Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of Western and Eastern classical music. He is music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) and conductor emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
The Blue Water Bridge is a twin-span international bridge across the St. Clair River that links Port Huron, Michigan, United States, and Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Water Bridge connects Highway 402 in Ontario with both Interstate 69 (I-69) and Interstate 94 (I-94) in Michigan.
McMorran Arena is an entertainment complex in Port Huron, Michigan consisting of a 4,800-seat multi-purpose arena and a theater. It was designed by Alden B. Dow and built in 1960 for $3.5 million. The exterior of the complex is faced with red brick with limestone accents.
The Victoria Symphony is a Canadian orchestra based in Victoria, British Columbia. It is considered Vancouver Island's best-known active performing arts organization. Currently conducted by Danish conductor Christian Kluxen, the orchestra consists of 34 full-contract, and 15 part-contract musicians. Each season, the orchestra delivers more than fifty main series programs, as well as a two-week-long summer series. A highlight of the year for many Victorians is the annual Symphony Splash fund-raising concert, held on the Sunday of the August long weekend. The orchestra performs on a barge in Victoria's Inner Harbour for an estimated audience of forty thousand—many attending in kayaks, canoes or dragonboats immediately in front of the barge. The orchestra administration consists of a paid staff, a board of directors, and many volunteers.
The Peninsula Symphony is an American symphony orchestra, based in the San Francisco Peninsula, California. The orchestra consists of over 90 community musicians. In 1995, the Peninsula Symphony was featured in a PBS broadcast.
The Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra (TBSO) is a Canadian professional orchestra based in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
The award winning Georgian Bay Symphony (GBS) located in Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada was founded in 1972 by a small group of dedicated area musicians and became a Canadian Registered Charity in 1982. It is considered a significant cultural institution in Owen Sound and area. The GBS is a community orchestra with over 60 volunteer musicians and a core group of professionals under the musical direction of François Koh. The GBS performs five "Main Series" concerts at the East Ridge Community School in the 761-seat Owen Sound Collegiate and Vocational Institute Community Auditorium each season. Guest artists have included some of Canada’s best musical talent including Shauna Rolston, Alain Trudel, George Gao, Adrian Anantawan, Richard Raymond, and Jonathan Crow.
Carlo Ponti Jr. is an Italian orchestral conductor working in the United States. He is the son of late film producer Carlo Ponti Sr. and Italian actress Sophia Loren, and the older brother of film director Edoardo Ponti.
The Windsor Symphony Orchestra is a Canadian orchestra located in Windsor, Ontario. The orchestra performs in South Western Ontario, playing both classical and popular music.
The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Charlotte, North Carolina. As the largest and most active professional performing arts organization in the central Carolinas, the Charlotte Symphony plays approximately 100 performances each season and employs 100 professional musicians, 62 of whom are on full-time contracts. Annual attendance for CSO performances numbers over 200,000.
Brian Jackson is a British-Canadian conductor, organist and pianist. He became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1974. Until 2012 he was Principal Pops Conductor of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Orchestra London, and the Victoria Symphony.
H. Robert Reynolds is an American musician,conductor and academic. He is currently the principal conductor of the Wind Ensemble at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, where he holds the H. Robert Reynolds Professorship in Wind Conducting.
The Tulsa Youth Symphony Orchestra (TYS) is an Oklahoma nonprofit arts organization founded in 1963 with a stated mission to provide advanced orchestral training and performance experience for talented young musicians in Northeastern Oklahoma. As of 2016, more than 200 students, ages 8 to 18, participate in the program’s two orchestras. The orchestra is composed of students from northeast Oklahoma communities and schools including Tulsa, Bartlesville, Owasso, Sapulpa, Sand Springs, Broken Arrow, Bixby, Coweta, Grove, Oologah, Jenks, and Holland Hall, as well as home schooled children. The orchestra celebrated its 50th year in the 2013 season.
Black conductors are musicians of African, Caribbean, African-American ancestry and other members of the African diaspora who are musical ensemble leaders who direct classical music performances, such as an orchestral or choral concerts, or jazz ensemble big band concerts by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face and head. Conductors of African descent are rare, as the vast majority are male and Caucasian.
