Peep! Peep! Thomas the Tank Engine™ is celebrating friendship at Day Out With Thomas®: The Celebration Tour 2015, and families across North America are invited aboard! Little engineers everywhere are invited to join Thomas when the #1 Engine pulls into French Lick for Day Out with Thomas: The Celebration Tour 2015! The event, which takes place September 19 & 20 – 26 & 27, 2015, will be hosted by The French Lick Scenic Railway and presented by Fisher-Price and sponsored by MEGA Brands and all inclusive Hard Rock Hotels.

Day Out with Thomas: The Celebration Tour 2015 is a fun-filled event that provides children of all ages the opportunity to climb aboard and take a ride with Thomas as well as participate in Thomas & Friends® themed activities. The tour, now in its 20th year, will make 42 stops across the U.S. and Canada, and is expected to welcome nearly one million passengers in 2015. For two back-to-back weekends, little engineers and their families are invited to take a 25 minute ride on their favorite engine, meet Sir Topham Hatt™, Controller of the Railway and enjoy a day of Thomas & Friends themed activities including arts & crafts, storytelling and more.

This year, Thomas & Friends celebrates 70 years of friendship. All aboard the Best Friends Express for an unprecedented year of Thomas-themed programs and activations as the #1 blue engine celebrates friendship with fans around the world.

Angels Fall Sale
September 10-20
Up to 60% off Select Items

Hours
Monday through Friday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday: Noon to 5:00 p.m.

Marzio Conti, guest conductor

Repertoire
Verdi: Overture to “Nabucco” (1841)
Corigliano: ‘Adagio’ from “Gazebo Dances” (1974)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93

About the Conductor

Music Director of the Oviedo Philharmonic (OFIL) in Spain since 2011, Marzio Conti has earned recognition and the acclaim of audiences and critics for his achievements in guiding the orchestra to new artistic heights. He has earned numerous awards and has been named a juror for the arts prize of the prestigious Premios Asturias. This season brought a major critical success with a recording of the complete symphonic works of Saint-Saens for Warner Classic. This year, he will record the music of De Falla and Turina for Decca. At the community level, Mr. Conti has earned praise for his special projects at local centers and for a joint venture with the University of Oviedo to offer films with music, services for families, musical projects related to sports and outdoor summer events designed to spotlight historic parts of the city.

Since his arrival in Oviedo, the symphonic season of OFIL has established a standard of excellence for the musical world of Spain, presenting notable artists such as Midori, Christian Zimermann, Gregory Kunde, Elina Garanca, Elisso Vissaladze, Sabine Mayer, Cecilia Bartoli, Natalia Gutman, Rudolf Buchbinder, Katia and Marielle Lebeque, Grigory Sokolov and as hosts to the London Philharmonic Orchestra (Salonen), St. Petersburg Philharmonic (Gergiev), Gothenburg Symphony (Dudamel), and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (Gardiner).

Mr. Conti has appeared as a guest conductor in Italy with the Rome Opera, Maggio Musicale of Florence, Teatro Regio di Torino, Teatro Comunale of Bologna, Teatro Massimo of Palermo, Teatro La Fenice of Venice, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Teatro Donizetti Bergamo, Teatro di Ravenna, Teatro di Bolzano , Teatro del Giglio di Lucca, Teatro Bellini Catania, Teatro Verdi Pisa, Teatro Comunale di Livorno, Orchestra Regionale Toscana, Orchestra Haydn and the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto. In Spain, he has conducted the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Teatro de la Zarzuela, Orquesta Sinfonica de Bilbao, Orquesta de Tenerife, Orquestra de Extremadura, Orquestra de la Gran Canaria, Orquestra de las Baleares, Teatro Arriaga Bilbao and Orquesta de Navarra. In Germany, he has conducted at the Dortmund Staatsoper, Saarbrücken Staatsoper, Dessau Stadtsoper, Monchegladbach Staatsoper and Brandemburger Symphoniker. In France, he has conducted the Orchestra Regional de Cannes e de la Cote d’Azur, Orchestre da La Picardie, Opera de Marseille and Orchestre d’Avignon.

Elsewhere, he has conducted the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Korean National Symphony Orchestra and Pusan Philharmonic (Korea), National State Orchestra of Athens, Teatro del Bicentenario (Mexico), Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica, Opera de Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Orquesta Sinfonica de Porto and Orquesta Metropolitana de Lisboa (Portugal), and the Haifa Symphony Orchestra (Israel).

He has conducted his orchestras at important European venues such as The Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, Queen Elisabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, Palau de la Musica de Barcelona, Parco della Musica Rome, Teatro Megaron Athens, Finlandiatalon Helsinky, Musikalle Hamburg, Munich Theatre (Germany), King David Auditorium Tel Aviv.

Other notable soloists with whom he has collaborated include Barbara Hendricks, Misha Maisky, Lynn Harrell, Gary Hoffman, Renato Bruson, Leo Nucci, Jean Pierre Rampal, Maurice Andre, Maurice Bourgue, Max Chamaiou, Brigitte Engerer, Javier De Maistre; dancers and choreographers Carla Fracci,Yuri Grigorovich, Patrice Bart, Roland Petit, Frederic Flamand, Jean- Christophe Maillot; and directors such as Calisto Bieto, Emilio Sagi, the Fura del Baus, Lindsey Kemp, Ugo Gregoretti and Julia Pevzner.

Formerly one of his generation’s leading exponents of the flute following a debut at the Salzburg Festival with I Soloist Veneti at the age of 20, Marzio Conti performed with major orchestras and made numerous recordings through the middle 1990’s after which he devoted himself full-time to conducting. A student of Piero Beluggi, Mr. Conti quickly received engagements as a permanent director of various Italian and foreign orchestras. He conducts both opera and the symphonic repertoire, and collaborates with leading international dance companies, as well as major soloists.

From 2004 to 2010 Mr. Conti served as Artistic Director of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo, taking over the orchestra at a time of economic crisis. He raised funds, established connections with other institutions, and attracted a new, younger audience with raised the orchestra’s profile and quality enough to bring it to the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, secure a recording contract with Naxos and residency at the Nice Summer Festival, home of the prestigious international summer academy, where he had previously held the chair of flute studies after Jean-Pierre Rampal and Alain Marion. Another notable achievement in Sanremo was his creation of the musical West Side Story, performed exclusively with high school students who had never made music. Prepared during the school year, the work was a great success with audiences and critics, and instrumental in adding new subscribers to the orchestra.

From 2003 until 2008 Mr. Conti was Music Director of the Teatro di Tradizione per l’Opera Italiana of Chieti. He led a series of recordings in collaboration with Naxos focused on Italian opera, including Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia and Donizetti’s La Figlia del Reggimento. Chieti’s theater participated in numerous television programs in the most important opera broadcasts nationwide and created a network of partnerships with other Italian theaters, including those of Pisa, Lucca, Livorno, Jesi, and Ravenna, which led to lower costs for the various opera productions. Notable among these programs was “The Concert for Peace” from King David Auditorium Tel Aviv (Israel).

From 2001 until 2004, Mr. Conti was music director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Turin. He infused the programming there with new life and helped bring about a growth in subscriptions, and began a series of initiatives that brought the orchestra more in touch with civic life in Turin. His recordings with the orchestra drew praise from critics, and he and the orchestra toured France, Germany and Spain. He forged a partnership with the French city of Lyon which led to a historic Dvorak Requiem at the National Auditorium of the same city. Under his leadership, the orchestra became known throughout Europe with frequent tours in Italy, France, Germany and Spain.

From 1998 to 2002 he was principal conductor at the Istituzione Sinfonica Abruzzese in Italy, responsible for a major period of artistic growth and international prestige that led to a series of recordings and frequent tours in Italy, France, and Spain.

This expressive writing class will be a supportive space for adult writers who are negotiating difficult topics, regardless of genre or experience. We will discuss writing our trauma from a safe space, self-care, critical reading, how to give and receive constructive criticism, what writing style works best for us and why, finding our voices, and point of view among other topics. At least 30 minutes of every session will be devoted to in-class writing. Writers are encouraged to share their work, but not required. Regular but brief out-of-class writing and reading will be assigned for in-class discussion. Maximum 15 participants. Minimum 4 registrants. All genders welcome. Some scholarships available. Contact [email protected] with scholarship inquiries by Saturday, August 22.

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