RELEASE: Broadway Comes to Omaha!

Media Contact:
Daniela Volkovinsky
Communications Manager
Office: 402.661.8422
dvolkovinsky@omahasymphony.org

Experience beloved Broadway songs from award-winning musicals sung by celebrated Broadway talent

OMAHA, Neb., September 26, 2022 – In a celebration of all the glitz and glamour of Broadway, four sensational vocalists join the Omaha Symphony in two evenings of beloved showtunes. Scott Coulter, Jessica Hendy, Kelli Rabke, and John Boswell will join Resident Conductor Ernest Richardson and the Omaha Symphony on Saturday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 9 at 2 p.m. at the Holland Performing Arts Center Peter Kiewit Concert Hall.

Hailed as a “stratospheric tenor” (Wall Street Journal) whose “distinctive tenor packs an emotional wallop” (Huffington Post), Scott Coulter is one of New York’s most honored soloists with decades of experience singing in cabarets and clubs, directing shows, and running his own production company. Joined by vocalist Jessica Hendy, a “powerhouse” with shows like Aida and CATS under her belt, Kelli Rabke, a vocalist handpicked by Andrew Lloyd Webber to make her Broadway debut and “one of the best singers in the business” (Broadway World), and John Boswell, a pianist, singer, and music director with an impressive list of On- and Off-Broadway credits, a performance like this offers the ultimate thrilling Broadway experience right here in Omaha.

“I can't wait to open the Omaha Symphony Pops Series with a dazzling selection of Broadway favorites and welcome back my friends Kelli Rabke and Scott Coulter, whose extraordinary voices captured our imaginations and brought down the house,” says Maestro Ernest Richardson as he reminisces about working with Coulter and Rabke during Omaha Symphony’s 2021/22 performance titled ‘Music of the Knights.’ Audiences can expect song selections from musicals such as Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera, Annie, Jersey Boys, The Sound of Music, Chicago, CATS, Disney’s The Lion King, and A Chorus Line.

Performances will be presented on Saturday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 9 at 2 p.m. at the Holland Performing Arts Center Peter Kiewit Concert Hall. Tickets are on sale now at omahasymphony.org.

Performance Details:

Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 8-9 at 7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m.
Holland Performing Arts Center Peter Kiewit Concert Hall

Ernest Richardson, conductor
Scott Coulter, vocalist
Jessica Hendy, vocalist
Kelli Rabke, vocalist
John Boswell, pianist/vocalist

About Scott Coulter

Scott Coulter is one of New York’s most honored vocalists. For his work in cabaret, Scott has received five MAC Awards (Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs), five Bistro Awards and two Nightlife Awards for Outstanding Vocalist and has performed at most of NYC’s top rooms including Birdland, 54 Below, The Oak Room at the Algonquin, and Feinstein’s at The Regency where he spent a record-setting eight months performing the revue 11 O’Clock Numbers at 11 O’Clock which he also co-created, directed, and musically arranged. His self-titled debut CD won the 2003 MAC Award for Outstanding Recording and was chosen as the best recording of the year by TheatreMania and Cabaret Scenes magazine which pronounced it “quite simply, the best these ears have ever heard.”

Scott was director and star of A Christmas Carol: The Symphonic Concert in its world premiere with the Baltimore Symphony and reprised his performance in the Emmy-nominated PBS production which premiered in December 2013.

Since 1997, Scott has performed around the country with award-winning songwriting duo Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich in their many revues. While singing with Goldrich and Heisler he was discovered by Oscar and Grammy winning composer Stephen Schwartz who then invited him to join the revue Stephen Schwartz & Friends. That revue (starring Schwartz and Coulter along with Liz Callaway and Tony Award-winner Debbie Gravitte) has been performing all over the world since 1999. Schwartz has said, “One of the greatest things that can happen to a composer is to have his music interpreted by Scott Coulter.”

Scott regularly performs in concert both as a solo artist and with a variety of legendary performers including Stephen Schwartz, Tony-winner Ben Vereen and Grammy-winner Sheena Easton. He has performed with symphonies all over the world including San Francisco, Baltimore, Seattle, Phoenix, Winnipeg, St. Louis and Calgary. Noted for his soaring high notes and pure tone, Scott’s vocal versatility has garnered rave reviews from coast to coast. “Coulter is a stratospheric tenor” (The Wall Street Journal) who “sings to the balcony with a soaring theatrical savvy.” (Variety) “Coulter’s distinctive tenor packs an emotional wallop” (Huffington Post) while possessing “an ‘80s pop rock star strength, reminiscent of Phil Collins.” (San Francisco Examiner)

As a director Scott’s credits include many shows for The Town Hall in NY (Broadway by the Year, Broadway’s Rising Stars, Broadway Originals, Broadway Unplugged) and BBTY for The Berkshire Theatre Festival and Broadway by the Bay. Along with Michael Kerker and ASCAP, he’s produced and directed several installments of Michael Feinstein’s Standard Time at Carnegie Hall. He is creator, arranger and director of several touring shows including Cinema Toast, Southern Comfort, Broadway’s Elite, That’s Life: A Toast to Sinatra, You’ve Got a Friend: Carole King, Neil Sedaka and the Music of the Brill Building, Blockbuster Broadway! and his critically acclaimed solo show, The Fella Sings Ella, which honors the life of the legendary Ella Fitzgerald. His concert creation The King: The Music of Elvis premiered with the Calgary Philharmonic and is currently playing symphony halls across America and Canada.

Scott has taught master classes from Los Angeles to Kalamazoo to Riga, Latvia, and is creator of his own unique group vocal coaching series called Songbook. Scott recently wrote the book for the new musical Got to Be There which celebrates the life and music of songwriter Elliot Willensky.

Scott is founder/owner of Spot-On Entertainment. He’s a resident director of programming at 54 Below (Broadway’s Supper Club) in NYC and is a graduate of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

About Jessica Hendy

Jessica Hendy’s Broadway credits include the role of Grizabella in CATS and Ameris in Aida. She also toured North America as the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and has been in numerous off-Broadway and pre-Broadway workshops. She received rave reviews for her one-woman cabaret, A Life to Call Your Own, and a Bistro Award for the review Get Your Tickets Now. She recently won an Acclaim Award for her portrayal of Jeanne in The Great American Trailer Park Musical at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. She has performed regularly with Steven Reineke of the New York Pops in orchestral pops programs and has performed with orchestras such as the Long Beach Symphony, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the Modesto Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony, and the Grand Rapids Symphony. She recently premiered Don’t Make Me Pull This Show Over: Dispatches from The Front Lines of Parenting, a new musical written by Richard Oberacker and Rob Taylor, which won the Cincinnati Fringe Festival Award.

About Kelli Rabke

Kelli Rabke got her “big break” playing the role of Dorothy in Paper Mill Playhouse’s acclaimed production of The Wizard of Oz; shortly thereafter, she was handpicked by Andrew Lloyd Webber to play the lead role of the Narrator in the Broadway revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (US Cast Recording). She is incredibly honored to be one of the only Broadway stars to originate a role in both a Stephen Schwartz and an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. She has appeared in numerous concerts at NYC Town Hall, including Broadway Originals and Broadway Unplugged. In June, she made her solo cabaret debut in the New York debut of No Place Like Home at 54.

About John Boswell

John Boswell has served as musical director for Judy Collins, Andy Williams, and Bob Newhart as well as the concert tours of Cinema Toast, That’s Life: A Toast to Sinatra, Broadway Today, Three Men and a Baby Grand and The Spy Who Loved Me starring Sheena Easton. John played the role of Moose in the national tour of Crazy for You. Broadway/Off-Broadway credits include Crazy for You, The Secret Garden, Back to Bacharach and David, and The Kathy and Mo Show: Parallel Lives. Most recently John composed music for the HBO special Kathy and Mo: The Dark Side. John has six CDs of original music on Hearts of Space Records; The Painter, Kindred Spirits, Count Me In, Festival of the Heart, Trust and Love.

About Ernest Richardson

Ernest Richardson is the principal pops conductor and resident conductor of the Omaha Symphony. Since 1993, he has laid the groundwork for and led in the development of the Omaha Symphony’s vaunted education and community engagement programs. In addition to his artistic leadership in the creation of the annual top-selling Christmas Celebration production and internationally performed "Only in Omaha" productions, he leads the successful Symphony Pops, Symphony Rocks, and Movies Series. The highly successful Family Series was created under his artistic leadership, and he is one of the visionary forces behind the innovative Symphony Joslyn Series. As chief architect of the Omaha Symphony’s education and community engagement programs, Richardson has been at the forefront of crafting the vision for the programs and their impact on the community. The pivotal point in his leadership can be traced to the first education report written in the beginning of his tenure with the Omaha Symphony. This report paved the way for the structure, function and programming of the education department leading to innovations in all programming including the creation of Choral Collaborative, Celebrate Creativity, Music Alive!, the Family Series, and Mission: Imagination.

Richardson holds the position of music director and principal conductor of the Steamboat Symphony Orchestra in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Under his leadership this organization has grown from a community orchestra to a resident professional orchestra. As one of the up-and-coming orchestras in the Front Range of Colorado, the Steamboat Symphony attracts the area's finest musicians. A recipient of the 2016 Nebraska Governor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Arts Education, Richardson has encouraged and supported countless young musicians.

As the founding artistic director and CEO of the innovative Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory, the program is based on four foundational principles that catapulted the program to national attention: the passionate, persistent pursuit of perfection can reveal the extraordinary within us; vision-directed leadership; the musician as athlete; and in all things – balance. Since 1997, this concept has attracted the finest faculty and leading young musicians from around the world. Graduates from the program are teaching, performing, and leading arts organizations throughout the country. From 2012 through 2015, Richardson held the position of music director and principal conductor for the Santa Barbara Music and Arts Conservatory. He also enjoys engaging with and training students in the Omaha Conservatory of Music Summer Institute.

An accomplished composer and arranger, Richardson composed the symphonic work Three Scenes for Chamber Orchestra, which was debuted by the Omaha Symphony in 2011. His works are featured largely in the annual Christmas production and on many education and outreach programs. His compositions and arrangements for orchestra have been performed by the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, by the Phoenix Chamber Players, Phoenix Symphony, Steamboat Symphony Orchestra, the orchestras of Omaha Conservatory of Music and elsewhere throughout the United States.

Richardson began studying the violin at the age of three with his father, Dr. Vernal Richardson. He continued his string education at Indiana University with Tadeusz Wronski, later concentrating on the viola at the University of Michigan with Donald McInnes. He studied conducting with Samuel Krachmalnick and Gustav Meier. While attending the University of Michigan, Richardson also studied composition with William Albright and William Bolcom.

An avid fly fisherman, Richardson can be found on trout streams in Colorado and municipal lakes in Nebraska. He has also earned a black belt in tae kwon do. He has been known to help his sons build award-winning pinewood derby cars and craft his own batons. He lives in Omaha with his wife and children.

Ticketing Information

Tickets for Broadway Blockbusters start at $20. Tickets can be purchased by visiting www.omahasymphony.org, through the Ticket Omaha app, or by calling Ticket Omaha at 402.345.0606. Student rush tickets are $10 and can be purchased one hour before the performance. Performance dates are subject to change. In the event of performance changes or cancellations, the Omaha Symphony will email ticket holders to inform them of new dates and ticketing options. Patrons with questions may email ticketomaha@o-pa.org. The Omaha Symphony also regularly posts performance updates at omahasymphony.org, along with the Omaha Symphony’s Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram pages. Patrons can sign up for the latest updates at omahasymphony.org.

Thank you to our Pops Series sponsor Immanuel Communities and our Broadway Blockbusters Presenting Sponsor, CHI Health.

The Omaha Symphony is a non-profit organization that presents more than 100 live orchestral performances from September through June. In addition to Masterworks, Symphony Pops, Symphony Rocks, Movies, Symphony Joslyn, and Family series concerts, the Omaha Symphony’s nationally recognized education and community engagement programs touch the lives of more than 40,000 people each year. For tickets or information regarding the Omaha Symphony, call 402.345.0606 or visit omahasymphony.org. Programs, artists, dates, times, prices, and availability are subject to change.