RELEASE: Principal Cello Paul Ledwon takes center stage at next Symphony Joslyn
Media Contact:
Mark Champion
Communications Manager
Office: 402.661.8422
mchampion@omahasymphony.org
Omaha Symphony Principal Cello Paul Ledwon takes center stage at next Symphony Joslyn performance
Guest conductor Paolo Bortolameolli leads the Omaha Symphony through a powerful program of Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Schoenberg
OMAHA, Neb., 3/5/2026 – Music Director of the Ópera Nacional de Chile and Filarmónica de Santiago Paolo Bortolameolli joins the Omaha Symphony at the Joslyn Art Museum’s Witherspoon Hall for a program of resplendent repertoire.
Beethoven’s Egmont Overture bursts with intensity from the opening chord, only relinquishing its power at the very conclusion. Omaha Symphony Principal Cello Paul Ledwon performs as soloist on the gorgeous, fiery tightrope required by Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1. Finally, Schoenberg’s stunning, heartbreaking Verklärte Nacht concludes the afternoon with beauty, pain, and love, all emerging from the rich shadows and textures created purely from a string orchestra.
Ledwon Plays Shostakovich will be presented at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 15. Rehearsals will take place the week before the concert. Media is welcome to attend with prior notice.
You can find the concert webpage here:
https://www.omahasymphony.org/concerts/ledwon-plays-shostakovich
To arrange coverage, contact Mark Champion via email at mchampion@omahasymphony.org or by phone at (402) 661-8422.
Performance Details:
Sunday, March 15 at 2 p.m.
Joslyn Art Museum
Paolo Bortolameolli, conductor
Paul Ledwon, Principal Cello
Ticketing Information
Tickets for Ledwon Plays Shostakovich are $47. Tickets 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 Paolo Bortolameolli
Music Director, Ópera Nacional de Chile and Filarmónica de Santiago Music Director, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional Juvenil (Chile) Chilean-Italian conductor Paolo Bortolameolli is a prolific force on the podium, a talented lecturer, and advocate for the arts. Notable debuts between 2022 and 2024 include the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and Hong Kong Philharmonic, as well as returns to the Hollywood Bowl, Kansas City Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires, and Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia. He has led ensembles and built relationships with orchestras around the world such as Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolivar in Caracas, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Haydn Orchestra in Bolzano, Gulbenkian Orchestra in Portugal, and the Orchestra della Toscana in Florence. Recent opera productions include Tosca at the Opéra de Paris, Die Zauberflöte and Madama Butterfly at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, and Golijov’s Ainadamar at Detroit Opera, as well as performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Ópera Nacional de Chile and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional Juvenil which marked the monumental work's premiere in Chile. His long relationship with the LA Philharmonic continues through spring 2023, leading concerts at the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall. Among his many accomplishments is the landmark production of Meredith Monk’s inventive opera ATLAS, performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in 2019. He is passionately committed to new music, including the works of Miguel Farías, Gabriela Ortiz, and Jorge Peña Hen, among others. In 2022, his commission of Miguel Farías’s Estallido was premiered with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A natural leader on and off the podium, Paolo is Music Director of the Ópera Nacional de Chile and Filarmónica de Santiago, Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional Juvenil in Chile. Former Artistic Director of the Sinfónica Azteca in Mexico, he led an educational residency run by the Fundación Azteca from Grupo Salinas in Mexico every year. He developed several new media initiatives with the Esperanza Azteca in Mexico, and his now legendary “Ponle Pausa,” a project that sought to rethink the concept of music education through the implementation of short videos and concerts targeting social network users, received wide acclaim. In 2018, he was a guest-lecturer for a TED Talk in New York and in 2020, he released his first book: Rubato: Procesos musicales y una playlist personal.
About Paul Ledwon
Paul Ledwon is currently principal cellist of the Omaha Symphony, a position he has held since 1999. His frequent solo appearances with the orchestra have included works by Haydn, Schumann, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky.
Ledwon began his musical training at the age of four on the piano and violin, discovering the cello a few years later. He studied with Hans Jorgen Jensen at Northwestern University, earning his Bachelor of Music with Distinction and his Master of Music with Program Honors. While a student at NU, he performed recitals annually in Evanston and in Detroit, for the Detroit Institute of Arts' subscription concert series. He was also a frequent soloist with Chicago area orchestras including the Northwestern and North Shore Chamber Orchestras, and performed at the master classes of such cellists as Anner Bylsma, Harvey Shapiro, John Sharp, Paul Katz, Lynn Harrell, and Mstislav Rostropovich. At this time, Ledwon was principal cellist of both the NU Symphony and the Chicago Symphony Civic Orchestras, as well as a substitute with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His summers included performing as principal with the Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) and Pacific Music Festival (Japan) orchestras.
As a recipient of the prestigious Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) fellowship, Ledwon continued his studies with Martin Ostertag at the Hochschule fuer Musik in Karlsruhe, Germany. During his three years there, Ledwon performed as a soloist with and principal of the Hochschule Orchestra and subbed frequently with the Suedwestfunk (SWF) Orchestra in Baden-Baden and the Suedwestdeutsches Kammerorchester in Pforzheim. As a chamber musician, he performed regularly in Karlsruhe, and attended summer sessions at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. An avid performer of contemporary music, he performed with the Karlsruhe contemporary music ensemble, touring Brazil and South Korea and participating in recording the works of Wolfgang Rihm with renowned conductor Peter Eotvos. Ledwon received his Artists Diploma from the Hochschule with the highest possible marks, an achievement of which he is extremely proud.
Since returning to the U.S., Ledwon has also been a member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and has served as principal cellist for the South Bend Symphony, Elgin Symphony, and Chicago Opera Theater Orchestras. Since 1997 he has spent summers in Door County, Wisconsin, as principal cellist of the Peninsula Music Festival.