The New Albany Symphony Orchestra’s Holiday Spectacular Concert photographed Sunday, December 19, 2021 at the McCoy Center for the Arts in New Albany, Ohio.

Luis Biava, conductor

“Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays!” The New Albany Symphony Orchestra joins forces with the New Albany Symphony Chorus in a festive performance of holiday favorites.

The New Albany Symphony OrchestraÕs Holiday Spectacular Concert photographed Sunday, December 19, 2021 at the McCoy Center for the Arts in New Albany, Ohio. (© James D. DeCamp | http://JamesDeCamp.com | 614-367-6366)

The New Albany Symphony Orchestra (NASO) is a community orchestra comprised of over 120 community, student, and professional musicians from all over the Columbus metro area who come together four times a year to present concerts from the professional classical repertoire in the beautiful Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts in the heart of New Albany.

NASO was designed by its founders to be a true community orchestra, in which students are mentored by professional musicians, talented community musicians have a stage on which to perform, and professional musicians have an additional outlet for their craft.
Founded in 2007 by New Albany resident and violist Heather Garner and founding conductor Luis Biava, the New Albany Symphony Orchestra is proud to serve the community for more than a decade.

A strong component of the New Albany Symphony Orchestra’s mission is music education, and our commitment to even the youngest student musician in the orchestra is that he or she will perform on at least one piece per concert. The orchestra offers free master classes, a sensory-friendly series for our friends in the autism and dementia/Alzheimer’s communities, and a student concerto competition, in which talented young people from all over the state compete to win the opportunity to perform a concerto on stage in front of a live audience. Additionally, the orchestra collaborates with many area arts organizations and schools. Ticket prices are kept low – even offering free tickets to our underserved partners – to ensure that the art of classical music remains accessible to the people of New Albany and our surrounding areas.

The New Albany Symphony Chorus (NASC) is an all-volunteer ensemble led by Dr. Michael G. Martin. Founded in 2019 and comprised of over 65 auditioned voices, the Chorus made its community debut this season with Mahler’s 2nd Symphony on October 6th at 3:00 p.m. and will perform throughout the season with the New Albany Symphony. The Chorus includes members of the New Albany community and surrounding suburbs, with ages spanning from high-school through retirement.

Luis Biava is Principal Cello of Columbus Symphony Orchestra (CSO), artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Dublin (CMSD), conductor of Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra and Camarata and Music Director of the New Albany Symphony. His family represents four generations of musicians. His first cello studies were with his uncle Miguel Uribe in his native Colombia, and he performs regularly in the Trio Biava-Uribe with his aunt (Blanca Uribe, piano) and his father (Luis Biava, violin). He attended the University of Michigan, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance. He also holds bachelor’s and master’s degree from the Juilliard School where he studied with Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins. He has also studied with Gabo Rejto, Samuel Mayes, Elsa Hilger, and Oliver Edel. He has performed solos with CSO; the symphonies of Savannah, U. of Michigan, Temple U., Bogotá, and Westerville; Upper Arlington Community Orchestra; Filamonica de Bogotá; and Antioquia Symphony of Medellin. He has performed as recitalist on the east coast, Puerto Rico and Colombia, South America as well as many chamber music concerts with CMSD and Camarata, the High Street Four String Quartet and the Canaletto Ensemble. His recordings include the Fauré Elegy with CSO, works of Antonio Maria Valencia with the Biava-Uribe Trio and as principal cello of the Spoleto Festival orchestra the Grammy nominated opera by Samuel Barber, Antony and Cleopatra. Mr. Biava is currently an adjunct professor at Kenyon College and on the faculty of FOSJA in San Juan Puerto Rico. In March 2011 he performed the Beethoven Triple Concerto with his wife Ariane Sletner and Blanca Uribe under the direction of his father Luis Biava with the New Albany Symphony. In January of 2012, Mr. Biava performed Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra. Later that he was soloist in the Vivaldi Concerto for Two Cellos and the JC Bach Sinfonia Concertante with the Columbus Symphony this past year. He will be performing the Dvorak Concerto with the Newark-Granville Symphony in March of 2013 as well as the Vivaldi Two Cello with David Finckel with the New Albany Symphony for their final concert this season. He recently received the Empleos and Employment Ohio Diversity award for Latinos making a difference. In conducting this year, Mr. Biava conducted Hilary Hahn in the Korngold Violin Concerto and was cover conductor for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Tchaikovsky Spectacular concert in Saratoga Springs.