For the Miami Valley Today

PIQUA — The Friends of the Piqua Public Library will present their eighth annual Holiday Cabaret at 8 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 21, at in the Grand Ballroom of the Fort Piqua Plaza. Kicking off the Holiday Season will be the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Peter Stafford Wilson, featuring Piqua’s Dan Rosenbaum as vocalist, performing holiday favorites and timeless classics.

The Springfield Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1943 and performs at the Clark State Performing Art Center’s Kuss Auditorium. The SSO presents an annual series of Concerts for Young People Today, bussing students from several counties for concerts that are often the children’s first exposure to symphonic music. The SSO sponsors a Youth Symphony, Youth Chamber Orchestra, Youth String Ensemble, and Children’s Choir, providing students in Clark County their only opportunity to perform in a full orchestral setting. During the summer months, the SSO performs a free outdoor concert and Lunch on the Lawn, featuring small ensembles that perform during the lunch hour at the Springfield Museum of Art.

Conductor Peter Stafford Wilson has served the SSO as Music Director since 2001 and concurrently holds the posts of Music Director of the Westerville Symphony and Principal Conductor of the Tulsa Ballet. He concluded his tenure as Assistant and Associate Conductor of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in 2018. Wilson and the SSO have received many accolades, among them the League of American Orchestra’s Award for Adventurous Programming, a result of such programs as “Night Lights,” a series that has enjoyed steadily increasing sales and attendance for the orchestra. Wilson is a native of North Carolina, attended the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and resides in Westerville with his wife, Barbara Karem Wilson, and two cats.

Dan Rosenbaum is a Piqua native and a graduate of Piqua High School who has been living in New York City and working as a professional Broadway actor for the last 22 years. Due to the shutdown of the industry because of COVID-19, he has returned to Ohio and is attending Wright State University to finish his BFA in Musical Theater and hopes to teach and direct in the area in the very near future. Rosenbaum recently played the lead in the Regional Premier of “A Bronx Tale: The Musical,” in Fort Myers, Fla., and has also appeared in national tours of “Rent,” “Aida,” and “Miss Saigon.” The Friends of the Library are excited to be hosts to this collaboration between the professionally accomplished Springfield Symphony Orchestra and one of Piqua’s most talented native sons.

Tickets are $50 for reserved seating and are available at the Readmore Hallmark Store in Piqua. Tickets will be sold from 10 a.m. to noon on Friday, Nov. 12, and Saturday, Nov. 13, at the Piqua Public Library. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. the evening of the performance, and appetizers and a cash bar will be available. This is one of the most popular events presented by the Friends of the Library, and its only fundraiser, so get your tickets early.