An Andrew Lloyd Webber Celebration
February 6
Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall at FSW
2020-2021 Season Sponsor: Gunterberg Charitable Foundation – Culliton Family
Conductor
Dr. Andrew M. Kurtz
Vocalists
Carolann Sanita
Gerritt Vandermeer
Andrew Lloyd Webber has composed some of the world’s best-known musicals. When Sunset Boulevard joined School Of Rock, Cats and The Phantom Of The Opera on Broadway in 2017, he became the only person to equal the record set in 1953 by Rodgers and Hammerstein with four Broadway shows running concurrently. Other musicals include Aspects Of Love, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Love Never Dies.
vocalist
Carolann Sanita
A NYC native now living in Naples, Fl, Carolann has toured as Marian in the first national tour of The Music Man and internationally as Maria in the European and Asian tours of West Side Story. Some favorite credits include singing back-up to Linda Eder at the Palace Theatre on Broadway, Encore’s No, No Nanette at New York City Center, Les Miserables at Flat Rock Playhouse, Mack and Mabel and The Boy From Oz at TheatreZone, Beauty and the Beast at Artpark, A Little Night Music at South Coast Repertory, Thoroughly Modern Millie at The Cape Playhouse, and Urinetown at the Geva Theatre. Last summer she had the chance to reprise the role of Maria in West Side Story at Sacramento Music Circus and most recently got to find her inner diva playing Lady of the Lake in Spamalot at Arkansas Repertory Theatre. Carolann has been a soloist with the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Jack Everly. Audiences may remember her past performance with Gulf Coast Symphony as Julie Jordan in Carousel.
vocalist
Gerritt VanderMeer
Gerritt VanderMeer brings more than twenty years of professional experience as an actor in independent and feature film, television, commercials, voice-overs and classical, contemporary and musical theatre to his work in the classroom. He has appeared onstage throughout the United States and abroad, and is a working member of SAG-AFTRA and Actors’ Equity Association (unions for professional stage and screen actors in the United States.) Career highlights include national tours (as Harold Hill in the Broadway touring company of The Music Man) and appearances at major regional theatres, including: Trinity Repertory Company, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, The Old Globe, Pioneer Theatre Company, Shakespeare Theatre Company (DC), Texas Shakespeare Festival and York Theatre. Southwest Florida stage credits include: Florida Repertory Theatre, Gulfshore Playhouse, TheatreZone and the Naples Philharmonic.
Andrew M. Kurtz
Music & Executive Director
Gulf Coast Symphony founder Dr. Andrew M. Kurtz enters his twenty-sixth season as the Symphony’s Music & Executive Director, and conductor. His deep rooted commitment to new work, community and education, combined with a vibrant artistic vision has led to creating and nurturing one of the most dynamic arts organizations in the region. His conducting has been called “passionate, expansive, expert, and musical.” He was named the 2007 Performing Artist of the Year at Lee County’s Angel of the Arts Awards. Kurtz’s repertoire encompasses a wide range of music styles from baroque to contemporary, and multiple genres including symphonic, opera, ballet, musical theater, jazz, cantorial, and symphonic pops.
An avid arts educator, Maestro Kurtz was Resident Music Director at the Luzerne Music Center. Kurtz is a past-president of the board of the Lee County Alliance for the Arts. In 2001, he won First Prize in the Dell’Arte di Firenze International Conducting Competition, and made his European conducting debut in Florence. In 1995, Kurtz made his international operatic debut in Tel Aviv while working as a staff conductor at the Israel Vocal Arts Institute. In 1997, he conducted the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s educational tour production of The Best of Puccini. He was a scholarship conducting student at the prestigious Aspen Music Festival, and boasts numerous other conducting credits, including the Pennsylvania Opera Theater, the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Charlotte Symphony, Gonzaga Symphony, and the Ocean City Pops.
Kurtz completed his doctoral studies in conducting at the Peabody Conservatory and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Virginia where he received his master’s degree in music history and a bachelor of arts in music and drama. A native of Philadelphia, Kurtz has called Southwest Florida home for more than 28 years, where he currently resides with his wife, Julie, and their son, Benjamin.
Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra Members
Violin 1
Sean O’Neil~
Clive Owens
Carlann Evans~
Ariel Eliot~
Marcia Prezioso
Violin 2
Margaret Nichols
Ellen Fox
Brenda Cali
Erica Griswold
Sharyl Leifeld
Viola
Alfonso Giordano
Rachel Cox~
Ron Erickson~
Cello
Antonio Innaimo~
Scott Crowley~
Shelley See
Timothy Torres~
Double Bass
Doni Landefeld
Scott Davis~
John Wadsworth
Flute
Deb Handley
Sherrie Mangan
Oboe
Jonathan Gentry~
Clarinet
John Giacco
Nicholas Contreras
Bassoon
Stacey Gossmann
Horn
Tom Schiller
Kathy Edgett
Susan Oliver~
Trumpet
Alan Evans~
Sam Piazza
Trombone
Kevin Devitt~
Jeffrey Goldblatt
Timpani
Gary Colston
Percussion
Scott Crawford~
Paul Gavin~
Piano
Gary Stroh
Guitar
Timothy Torres
~ Denotes Gulf Coast Symphony Chamber Orchestra Member
Upcoming Concerts
Featuring the Gulf Coast Chamber Orchestra
2/12
Celebrate love with singing and dancing duo Kirby & Beverly Ward
2/14
Featuring the Gulf Coast Jazz Collective
2/20