GVO Will Present its Annual Holiday Concert

The Greenwich Village Orchestra (GVO) presents its annual holiday concert, led by Music Director Barbara Yahr and Associate Conductor Eric Mahl, on Sunday, December 8, 2019 at 3:00pm at All Saints Church. The concert's theme is Partnerships and Collaboration and features a side-by-side performance with student musicians from the 3rd Street Music School. The family-friendly program opens with Vivaldi's Flute Concerto in E-minor, with the GVO's own Simon Dratfield as soloist. The students from 3rd Street Music School join the GVO for Karl Jenkins' Palladio. Next, Eric Mahl leads the orchestra in the March from Prokofiev's Love for Three Oranges. Young violinist Ben Lerman performs the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D-major. The concert concludes with the finale of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade, featuring the high school students from the 3rd Street Music School.

Future GVO concerts this season include Classical Romantics on Sunday, February 9, 2020 at 3:00pm; Bohemian Rhapsodies on Sunday, March 15, 2020 at 3:00pm featuring pianist-presenter Astrith Baltsan in a program of her own design; and Stealing Fire on Sunday, May 2, 2020 at 4:00pm at Peter Norton Symphony Space featuring Pittsburgh Symphony principal clarinet Michael Rusinek and bassoon Nancy Goeres in the NYC premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff's Double Concerto, co-commissioned by the GVO, and the US premiere of Clarice Assad's Saravá. The season also includes two chamber music concerts at the Tenri Cultural Institute.

Now in its 33rd season, the GVO is committed to making music at the highest possible level and enriching the lives of both players and audience through emotionally charged, exhilarating performances. The GVO was founded in 1986 by a group of musicians from the New York Metropolitan area. The 70-member community orchestra is made up of accountants, actors, artists, attorneys, carpenters, editors, physicians, professors, photographers, computer programmers, retirees, scientists, students, and teachers, among others. Now in it's 33rd season, the GVO is committed to making music at the highest possible level and enriching the lives of both players and audience through emotionally charged, exhilarating performances.

The GVO regularly performs with internationally acclaimed soloists. In recent years, the orchestra has performed alongside soloists such as violinists Andrés Cárdenes, Itamar Zorman, and Hye-Jin Kim; cellists Edward Arron, Raman Ramakrishnan, David Heiss, and Brook Speltz; soprano Christine Goerke; mezzo-sopranos Jennifer Johnson Cano and Naomi O'Connell; baritone Jesse Blumberg; trumpet soloist Brandon Ridenour; and more.

Currently celebrating their 125th anniversary, Third Street Music School Settlement provides high-quality music and dance education through on-site, public-school and community programs, as well as an arts-infused preschool, to New Yorkers of all ages, regardless of background, artistic ability or economic circumstance. Their programs are taught by exceptional faculty in an environment that nurtures individual achievement and creativity, affording students the opportunity to reach their full musical potential while developing a life-long love of the arts.

Now in her eighteenth season with the GVO, Music Director Barbara Yahr continues to lead the orchestra to new levels of distinction. With blockbuster programming and internationally renowned guest artists, the GVO under Barbara's baton, has grown into an innovative, collaborative institution offering a full season of classical music to our local community.

A native of New York, Yahr's career has spanned from the United States to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Her previous posts include Principal Guest Conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra, Resident Staff Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony under Maestro Lorin Maazel and conductor of the Pittsburgh Youth Orchestra. She has appeared as a guest conductor with such orchestras as the Bayerische Rundfunk, Dusseldorf Symphoniker, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Frankfurt Radio, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Janacek Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, and the National Symphony in Washington D.C. She has also conducted the orchestra in Anchorage, Calgary, Chattanooga, Columbus, Detroit, Flint, Louisiana, New Mexico, Lubbock, Richmond as well as the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber, Rochester Philharmonic, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony and the Chautauqua Festival Symphony Orchestra. She has also appeared in Israel conducting in both Jerusalem and Elat and as an opera conductor, has led new productions in Frankfurt, Giessen, Tulsa, Cincinnati, Minnesota and at The Mannes School of Music in NYC. She has coached the actors on the set of the Amazon Series, Mozart in the Jungle, and last season, conducted the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Yahr is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Middlebury College where she studied piano and philosophy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Conducting from the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Max Rudolf and an MM in Music Theory from the Manhattan School of Music. She was a student of Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School in Hancock, Maine.

Yahr's commitment to finding new ways to reach a broader population with music ultimately led her into the field of music therapy. She is a Board Certified Music Therapist, with an MA in music therapy from NYU and post-graduate certification from the world-renowned Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy in New York City. Her pioneering, community music therapy project, Together in Music, brings orchestral music to the special needs community with uniquely interactive programs. Barbara is married to Alex Lerman and has two adult step-children, Abe and Dania, and a 17 year-old son, Ben.

Currently, Mr. Mahl is the Conductor and Artistic Director of OrchestraOne, Associate Conductor of the Greenwich Village Orchestra, and Music Director/Conductor of the Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra at Third Street Music School, and the Orchestra at Turtle Bay Music School. Mr. Mahl is a musician who believes in the transformative powers of music above all else. His hope is to provide meaningful, enriching and educational musical experiences to as many people as possible. Under the belief that the study of music is essentially an exploration of the human condition, and that classical music is infinitely beneficial for every human, he strives to cultivate an appreciation and understanding of music played with the highest possible level of artistry.

Mr. Mahl's past positions include artistic director of the New Jersey Young Artists Ensembles, the Harmony Program North Orchestra, assistant conductor to the contemporary music ensemble Orchestre 21, in Montreal QC, Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra in New York, New York, Conductor of the Fredonia Symphonia, cover conductor for the Orchard Park Symphony in Buffalo, NY, assistant to all orchestral and operatic activities at SUNY Fredonia, in Fredonia, NY, and assistant to orchestras at Universite de Montreal. He has had guest conducting experiences with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Ridgefield Symphony, New Amsterdam Symphony, Greenwich Village Orchestra, The Chelsea Symphony, Urban Playground orchestra, and the University Orchestras of the College Conservatory of Music (CCM), Orchestra de l'Universite de Montreal, and SUNY Fredonia.

Mr. Mahl's dedication to contemporary music is evident in his many collaborations and commissions with professional and student composers including the world premieres of fully-staged operas, experimental ballet, and countless small and large ensemble pieces of all genres. As part of his position with Orchestre 21, Mr. Mahl was selected to act as assistant for the world premiere of Debussy's newly finished opera, Le Diable dans le Belfroi. He was also selected from over 100 applicants to participate in the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music Conducting Workshop, where he worked closely with Marin Alsop and James Ross. His composer in residence program at the WCYO has accounted for four commissions and world premieres for Orchestra and Wind ensemble, as well as the performance of countless contemporary works throughout the season.

As a passionate educator, Mr. Mahl has personally taught all ages and instruments at a public and private schools throughout the five boroughs of New York City, and frequently works with student musicians from under-served communities. As a firm believer that music can provide a transformational experience for any child regardless of background, he attempts to engage and inspire students from as many cultural and geographic backgrounds as possible through community engagement activities such as free lectures, workshops, and concerts in addition to working with student orchestras.

Mr. Mahl also firmly believes that classical music is for everyone, and that art is an important and necessary vehicle to spur empathy and the understanding of one another, regardless of background. To that end, he continually strives to engage the communities that surround his orchestras through lecture series, interactive workshops, partnerships with other local non-profits and other engagement and educational activities. It is his goal to expose the humanistic meaning behind great works of art, to tear down any and all barriers between the audience and performers and to make everyone feel welcomed and accepted into a symphonic concert.