RELEASE: Omaha Symphony to perform score of DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon” live to picture

Media Contact:

Mark Champion

Communications Manager

Office: 402.661.8422

mchampion@omahasymphony.org

Omaha Symphony to perform score of DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon” live to picture

OMAHA, Neb., 1/20/2026 – A winner with audiences and critics alike, DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon is a captivating and original story that combines humor, fire-breathing action and epic adventure!

Hiccup is a young Viking who defies tradition when he befriends one of his deadliest foes – a ferocious dragon he calls Toothless. Together, these unlikely heroes must fight against all odds to save both their worlds.

How To Train Your Dragon – Live in Concert features this acclaimed film presented in HD, with composer John Powell’s Academy Award®-nominated score performed live to picture by a full symphony orchestra in a thrilling experience for all ages.

DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon™ In Concert will be presented on Saturday, January 24 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, January 25 at 2 p.m. You can find the concert webpage here: https://www.omahasymphony.org/concerts/how-to-train-your-dragon-live-in-concert

To arrange coverage or interviews, please contact Mark Champion via email at mchampion@omahasymphony.org or by phone at (402) 661-8422.

Performance Details:

Saturday, January 24 at 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, January 25 at 2 p.m.

Holland Performing Arts Center

Ernest Richardson, conductor

Rehearsal Details:

Media is welcome to attend and cover a rehearsal with prior approval. Rehearsals are Friday, January 23 from 2:30 – 5 p.m. & 7 – 9:30 p.m.

Ticketing Information

Tickets for DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon™ In Concert can be purchased by visiting www.omahasymphony.org or by calling Ticket Omaha at 402.345.0606. Student rush tickets are $10 and can be purchased 90 minutes 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 Facebook and Instagram pages. Patrons can sign up for the latest updates at omahasymphony.org.

About the Omaha Symphony

The Omaha Symphony is a non-profit organization that annually serves over 310,000 people through more than 250 culturally enriching and entertaining mainstage concerts, music education programs, community engagement activities, and digital initiatives like Omaha Symphony Anywhere, a free online streaming platform featuring recordings of live performances, along with educational content, interviews, musician highlights, and more behind-the-scenes video content. In addition to Masterworks, Symphony Joslyn, Family, and LIVE with the Omaha Symphony concert series, the Omaha Symphony’s nationally recognized education and community engagement programs touch the lives of more than 70,000 people and over 300 schools each year. We are focused on creating a welcoming space and nurturing connections to ensure the Omaha community experiences and participates in music in a way that serves, reflects, uplifts, and entertains.

About Maestro Ernest Richardson

Ernest Richardson is in high demand as conductor, composer, arranger, organizational leader and inspirational speaker. His versatility finds him within one season conducting Stravinsky's Firebird Suite or Broadway artists in the works of Leonard Bernstein, a live-to-movie production of Harry Potter, facilitating strategic decision-making for leading arts organizations, or training young musicians for the passionate, persistent pursuit of perfection.

He has been at the forefront of symphonic video/live music productions, conducting live-to-movie scores of the Harry Potter series with CineConcerts, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Back to the Future, Pirates of the Caribbean, Singin’ in the Rain, Casablanca, Ratatouille, Star Trek (2009), the Charlie Chaplin silent film The Gold Rush, and Star Wars.

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 beloved Christmas Celebration production and internationally performed "Only in Omaha" productions, he leads the Omaha Symphony’s “Live With” series, with popular music, dynamic performers, rock bands, movie favorites, and more. 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 conducts annually the 500-voice choir of Choral Collaborative with the Omaha Symphony.

Recent guest conducting engagements include the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Des Moines Symphony in Star Wars: A New Hope in concert, Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra for the Harry Potter in Concert series, Houston Symphony in a performance with singer/songwriter Michael Cavanaugh, and the Florida Orchestra and Phoenix Symphony.

Launched in 2023, Richardson hosts the weekly “Symphonic Connections” on KVNO 90.7, Omaha's classical radio station, a journey connecting listeners to the emotional, spiritual and visceral impact of symphonic music. Tune in on Saturdays at 5:00 PM CT.

A recipient of the 2016 Nebraska Governor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Arts Education, Richardson has encouraged and supported countless young musicians, including as the founding artistic director and CEO of the innovative Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory. He also enjoys engaging with and training students in the Omaha Conservatory of Music Summer Institute.

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 the trout streams in Colorado, Utah and municipal lakes in Nebraska. He lives in Omaha with his wife and children and a varied menagerie of cattle dogs, cats and exotic birds.