Join David Stewart Wiley, Conductor and Festival Virtuosi Orchestra with guest soloists on period natural horns for an afternoon of Classical music in a beautiful mountain setting.
This special festival performance features one of the most beloved violin concertos by W.A.
Mozart – his Concerto No 5 “Turkish” in A Major, played by the incomparable Akemi
Takayama. Plus, a double concerto for two horns by Joseph Haydn, played on period
natural horns by Abigail Pack and Rachel Niketopoulos as duo-soloists. Performances also
of Mozart’s familiar 2nd horn concerto on natural horn with orchestra, and mountain-themed music by Jay Ungar and David Wiley.
Rachel Niketopoulos, from Raleigh, NC, earned horn performance degrees at the
Universities of Iowa and Missouri (Kansas City). During college summers, she attended
the Music Academy of the West, the Sarasota Music Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival,
where she studied with orchestral horn players from Europe, The Met, the Chicago
Symphony, and other major American orchestras. After seven seasons with the Virginia
Symphony and Opera, she joined the horn section of the North Carolina Symphony in 2005
as fourth horn. After developing a passion for early music, she attended numerous
summer natural horn workshops at Indiana University, led by IU professor of horn
Richard Seraphinoff. Rachel has played her historical horns in several early instrument
orchestras including Atlanta Baroque, Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland), NC Baroque, and Bach
Akademie Charlotte. She performs on Seraphinoff copies of Baroque and Classical horns
originally made by Haleri of Paris, Kerner of Vienna, and Haas of Germany.
In addition to her musical pursuits, Rachel graduated as a certified instructor of the
Alexander Technique in 2003 from the Alexander Alliance in Philadelphia. She completed
the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction course, offered through Duke University
Hospitals and is currently training to become an Oxygen Advantage breathwork
instructor.
Dr. Abigail Pack, Professor of Horn at University of NC – Greensboro since 2008, native of Roanoke, Virginia, holds degrees from East Carolina University (BMA – Music Education), University of Iowa (MM – Performance), and University of Wisconsin-Madison (DMA – Performance and Pedagogy) where she was a Bolz Teaching Fellow. She has held faculty positions at James Madison University (2001 – 2008), Knox College in Galesburg, IL (1994 – 1996), Western State College in Gunnison, CO (1996 – 1998).
Dr. Pack has performed with the Barton Symphony Orchestra, Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra, Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wintergreen Summer Music Festival Orchestra, the Southwest Chamber Orchestra and the internationally esteemed Monarch Brass. She currently performs with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Greensboro Opera, Opera Roanoke, Amici Musicorum, and has performed with the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, Greensboro Symphony, Winston Salem Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, and the North Carolina Brass Band. She is also a founding member of the System-5 Brass Quintet. Other venues have included performances with the Iowa Brass Quintet, Western Slope Brass Band, Massanutten Brass Band and the Southeast Chamber Brass.
Recent performance and presentation highlights include national and international clinics, presentations, and performances such as the annual Southeast Horn Conference, the Western International Band Conference, and as a regular clinician for the American Band College in the Pacific Northwest in Oregon and Washington. Other performances and presentations include the National Flute Association (Washington D.C. with the Montpelier Winds), several International Horn Symposiums (University of Montreal, the University of Cape Town, South Africa, University of Alabama, and Ithaca College), the International Midwest Band and Orchestra Conference (Chicago 2003, 2008, 2022), the Kennedy Center of The Performing Arts (Washington), and the International Double Reed Conference (Athens, GA). She can be heard on the Centaur Record label and found at www.thehornprofessor.com
This is an exciting afternoon program at the Floyd Events Center-not to be missed! Adults: $25.00 Students: $5.00
For More Information: virginiasblueridgemusicfestival.org
