Meet the Conductor

Celebrating her sixth season as music director of The Williamsburg Symphonia, Janna Hymes has a well-regarded reputation throughout the nation as conductor. In the short time she has been associated with Williamsburg and the Symphonia, Hymes has overseen an expansion of the subscription season from four to five concerts, presented holiday pops concerts to sell-out crowds, arranged a family concert that filled the hall and served as honorary chair of First Night 2006.

New for the 2009-2010 season is the Pops Series, four programs that range from Gershwin to "Santa Comes to Town" to jazz with John Pizzarelli to Led Zeppelin. The Family Concert series has been expanded to include "The Symphonia Goes to the Movies" as well as the ever popular, very frightful Halloween selection of fun and scary music. A dynamic and versatile musician, Hymes says that her goal is to mold The Williamsburg Symphonia into the pre-eminent chamber orchestra in the Hampton Roads area.

A native of New York City, Hymes has conducted throughout the United States, including the symphony orchestras of Houston, Madison, North Carolina, Omaha, Richmond, Spokane, Springfield, and Florida West Coast; the Cincinnati and Chappaqua Chamber Orchestras; and the San Francisco's Women's Philharmonic. Her international guest conducting credentials include performances with France's Orchestre National de Lyon and Besançon Chamber Orchestra, The Netherlands' Delta Ensemble and Messiaen Academy, Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México and Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica.

A Fulbright Scholar, Hymes holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, from which she received a Distinguished Alumna Award. She has studied at the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, the Festival at Sandpoint and the Conductor's Guild Institute, and she counts among her teachers Leonard Bernstein, Gustav Meier, Otto Werner-Mueller and Gunther Schuller. A frequent guest speaker, she was also speaker and honoree at the Women to Watch Celebration 2000, sponsored by the Indianapolis Business Journal. She regularly teaches at the American Symphony Orchestra League's annual conducting workshops.

About Our Soloists: 2009-20010 Season

Valentina Lisitsa, piano November Guest Soloist
Ukrainian-born Valentina Lisitsa has been receiving rave reviews since her 1995 debut in Avery Fisher Hall at the Mostly Mozart Festival. Her multi-faceted playing has been described as "dazzling," and she is at ease in a vast repertoire ranging from Bach and Mozart to Shostakovich and Bernstein. Admitting to a special affinity for music of Rachmaninoff and Beethoven, she has presented all of the former’s concerti and next year will perform the latter’s 5th symphony with the Rotterdam Philharmonic.
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Akemi Takayama
May Guest Soloist

Born to musical parents in Tokyo, Japan, Akemi Takayama began her violin studies with her mother at the age of three. Her professional violin career began in Japan at the age of fifteen. Ms. Takayama is currently in her eleventh year as violinist for the internationally renowned Audubon Quartet, and tours regionally and nationally with the group. She has also served as the concertmaster of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra since 2004. Her recent solo performances with the RSO include Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Brahms’s Double Concerto for violin and cello.
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Our Musicians

First Violin
Akemi Takayama, Concertmaster
James A. Leavengood Charitable Fund, Concertmaster Chair
Sonya Chung, Assistant Concertmaster

Alana Carrithers

Susan Via

Arkady Heifitz

Sharla Gordon

Second Violin
Susy Yim, Principal
Linda Anderson, Assistant Principal

Tim Judd

Francoise Moquin

Susan Bedell

Rex Britton

Viola
Stephen Schmidt, Principal
Kim Buschek, Assistant Principal
Jena Chenkin
Tom Stevens

Cello
Neal Cary, Principal
John & Lisa Hewett, Principal Cello Chair
Jason McComb, Assistant Principal
Ryan Lannon
Kelly Mikkelson

Bass
Paul Bedell, Principal
Michael Jaesson, Assistant Principal

Flute
Jennifer Debiec Lawson, Principal
Margaret Carlson

Oboe
Shawn Welk, Principal
Victoria Hamrick

Clarinet
Nicholas Lewis, Principal
Donald & Linda Baker, Principal Clarinet Chair
Jared Davis

Bassoon
Jonathan Friedman, Principal
Lynda Edwards

Horn
Rachel Vilvikis, Principal

Roy E. Hock, Principal Horn Chair
Marlene Ford

Mark Biondillilo

Trumpet
Wendell Banyay, Principal
Robert Spaeth

Trombone
Ron Baedke, Principal

Timpani
Ray Breakall, Principal

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