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11/6/2026 - American Guests American Guests– Friday, November 6, 7:30pm Perrysburg Arts Center 210 E South Boundary St, Perrysburg, OH 43551 Program includes: Samuel Adler: Elegy for String Orchestra Clare Grundman: American Folk Rhapsodie #2 Henri Tomasi: Trombone Concerto Featured soloist: Garth Simmons, principal trombone, Toledo Symphony Margaret Bonds: Montgomery Variations Garth Simmons, trombone  Garth Simmons is the principal trombonist with the Toledo Symphony, and a trombonist with the Detroit Chamber Winds. Originally from Montana, Mr. Simmons left the west at age 17 to earn a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University and a master's degree from the Eastman School of Music. Prior to his arrival in Toledo, Mr Simmons held positions with several orchestras across the U.S., including the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Alabama and Florida Symphony orchestras. Currently, in addition to his duties with the TSO, Garth maintains an active schedule as a soloist and chamber musician. He is often featured as a soloist with the TSO, including performances of Christopher Rouse's Trombone Concerto in March of 2008 and Carlos Simon's Troubled Water in 2025. Mr. Simmons taught on the faculties of Birmingham-Southern College, the University of Alabama-Birmingham, the University of Toledo, and Bowling Green State University. Former students work as educators and performers across the United States, the Americas, and Europe. A versatile performer, Garth has also performed as a substitute and extra with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Opera, Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra. He has also performed in the pit for many touring Broadway shows, including Wicked, Beautiful, Chicago, Book of Mormon, and The Rat Pack is Back. His debut CD, American Visions, was released in 2013 and is available at www.garthsimmons.com and Apple Music. Samuel Adler, composer  Samuel Adler was born March 4, 1928, in Mannheim, Germany and came to the United States in 1939. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in May 2001, and then inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in October 2008. In 2018, he was award the Bundesverdienstkreuz (first class), the highest civilian award given by the German government. He is the composer of over 400 published works, including 5 operas, 6 symphonies, 17 concerti, 8 string quartets, 5 oratorios and many other orchestral, band, chamber and choral works and songs, which have been performed all over the world. He is the author of four books, Choral Conducting (Holt Reinhart and Winston 1971, second edition Schirmer Books 1985), Sight Singing (W.W. Norton 1979, 1997), and The Study of Orchestration (W.W. Norton 1982, 1989, 2001), and the autobiographical Building Bridges With Music (Pendragon Press 2017). He has also contributed numerous articles to major magazines and books published in the U.S. and abroad. Adler was educated at Boston University and Harvard University, and holds honorary doctorates from Southern Methodist University, Wake Forest University, St. Mary's Notre-Dame, the St. Louis Conservatory and the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. His major teachers were: in composition, Herbert Fromm, Walter Piston, Randall Thompson, Paul Hindemith and Aaron Copland; in conducting, Serge Koussevitzky. He is Professor-emeritus at the Eastman School of Music where he taught from 1966 to 1995 and served as chair of the composition department from 1974 until his retirement. Before going to Eastman, Adler served as professor of composition at the University of North Texas (1956-1966), Music Director at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Texas (1953-1966), and instructor of Fine Arts at the Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas (1955-1966). From 1954 to 1958 he was music director of the Dallas Lyric Theater and the Dallas Chorale. From 1997 to 2017 he was a member of the composition faculty at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City where he was awarded the 2009-10 William Schuman Scholars Chair. Adler has given master classes and workshops at over 300 universities worldwide, and in the summers has taught at major music festivals such as Tanglewood, Aspen, Brevard, Bowdoin, as well as others in France, Germany, Israel, Spain, Austria, Poland, South America and Korea. His works have been performed lately by the Berlin Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Mannheim National Theater Orchestra; the orchestras of Beijing, Chendu, Frankfurt (Oder), among others. Adler has received commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Barlow Foundation, the City of Jerusalem, the Welsh Arts Council and many others. Adler has been awarded many prizes including a 1990 award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Charles Ives Award, the Lillian Fairchild Award, the MTNA Award for Composer of the Year (1988-1989), and a Special Citation by the American Foundation of Music Clubs (2001). In 1983 he won the Deems Taylor Award for his book, The Study of Orchestration. In 1988-1989 he was designated "Phi Beta Kappa Scholar." In 1989 he received the Eastman School's Eisenhard Award for Distinguished Teaching. In 1991 he was honored being named the Composer of the Year by the American Guild of Organists. Adler was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (1975-1976); he has been a MacDowell Fellow for five years and; during his second trip to Chile, he was elected to the Chilean Academy of Fine Arts (1993) "for his outstanding contribution to the world of music as a composer." In 1999, he was elected to the Akademie der Künste in Germany for distinguished service to music. While serving in the United States Army (1950-1952), Adler founded and conducted the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra and, because of the Orchestra's great psychological and musical impact on European culture, was awarded a special Army citation for distinguished service. In May, 2003, he was presented with the Aaron Copland Award by ASCAP, for Lifetime Achievement in Music (Composition and Teaching). Adler has appeared as conductor with many major symphony orchestras, both in the U.S. and abroad. His compositions are published by Theodore Presser Company, Oxford University Press, G. Schirmer, Carl Fischer, E.C. Schirmer, Peters Edition, Ludwig-Kalmus Music Masters, Southern Music Publishers, Kaiser Music, Transcontinental Music Publishers, and Leupold Music. Recordings of his works have been done on Linn, Naxos, RCA, Gasparo, Albany, CRI, Crystal, Parma and Vanguard. Check out the music in advance! 12/11/2026 - An American Christmas An American Christmas – Friday, December 11, 7:30pm – at Perrysburg Arts Center 4/23/2027 - Into the West "Into the West" – Spring Concert – Apr. 23, 7:30pm, at Perrysburg Arts Center See our full calendar which includes our non-featured events such as rehearsals. |
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