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Echoes of Spring
Candlelight
Saturday, January 23, 2027 // 7:30 PM
Trinity United Methodist Church, Lima
Sunday, January 24, 2027 // 4:00 PM
St. Augustine Catholic Church, Minster
James Blachly, Music Director Candidate
We welcome the beauty of the season with Echoes of Spring: A Candlelight Concert, conducted by James Blachly. The program opens with the timeless serenity of Adagio for Strings by Barber and continues with the beloved Violin Concerto by Mendelssohn, one of the most lyrical and virtuosic works in the violin repertoire. The evening concludes with the radiant Appalachian Spring Suite by Copland, a work that beautifully captures the optimism and renewal of the American landscape. Presented in the warm glow of candlelight, this program offers an atmosphere of reflection, lyricism, and the quiet promise of spring.
Featured Repertoire
Samuel Barber
Felix Mendelssohn
Aaron Copland
Adagio for Strings
Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
Appalachian Spring Suite
James Blachly, Music Director Candidate
James Blachly is a Grammy®-winning conductor dedicated to enriching the concert experience by connecting with audiences in memorable and meaningful ways. He serves as Music Director of the Experiential Orchestra and the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra and is a versatile guest conductor in diverse repertoire for orchestra and opera. Blachly’s performances have been praised by The Guardian for “catch[ing] the music’s sweeping, sonorous energy,” while Musical America applauds his “sense of finesse and reverence.”
Siwoo Kim, Violin
Siwoo Kim is an “incisive” and “compelling” violinist (The New York Times) who “plays with stylistic sensitivity and generous tonal nuance.” (The Chicago Tribune) Kim actively performs as soloist & chamber musician and he is the founding co-artistic director of VIVO Music Festival in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
Since his Carnegie Hall debut with the Juilliard Orchestra, he has gone on to perform as soloist with orchestras in four different continents. As chamber musician, Kim performs at festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, collaborating with revered artists including Mitsuko Uchida, Denes Varjon, and Susan Graham. An advocate of new music, Kim premiered and recorded Samuel Adler’s only violin concerto on Linn Records, and VIVO Music Festival annually co-
commissions new chamber music works with Paris-based Ensemble Intercontemporain. This season, Kim recorded and released the premiere recording of Michael Torke’s “Last” on Ecstatic Records with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO).
Kim received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Juilliard School where he studied with Robert Mann and Donald Weilerstein. He went on to complete a two-year fellowship at Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect program.
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