The Paducah Symphony Orchestra (PSO) was founded in 1979 when a number of area musicians performed at the city's Summer Festival. That concert created enough enthusiasm to bring together a small group of founders who organized additional concerts. During the first two years, concerts were planned and performed one at a time as funds were raised. In the years since, the PSO has expanded its concert season to include seven classical concerts and three choral concerts. Many of the concerts now feature internationally recognized guest artists and local Paducah natives in the music performance industry.
Dr. Jordan Tang conducted the orchestra for twenty-three seasons from 1987 to 2009. In the spring of 2010, the PSO appointed Raffaele Ponti as its new Artistic Director & Conductor.
The mission of the PSO is to bring the rewards of great music to a growing and diverse regional audience. As the orchestra-in-residence at the Carson Center for the Performing Arts, the PSO encompasses a wide range of ensembles, including a professional orchestra, auditioned adult, youth & children choruses and other music education programs and services. The orchestra members, all paid professional musicians, are drawn from over 30 communities in Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, and Alabama. The audience is even more diverse, representing over 60 communities in a five state area.
As the score and quality of the organization's programs have grown, so has its operating budget. From a $45,000 budget in 1981-82, the Paducah Symphony's operating budget has grown to over $2 million.
For 45 years, the PSO has served as the premier musical organization in Paducah and the surrounding region, expanding its appearances through collaborations with community partners and enhancing the area's cultural reputation.
The brand-new PSO Academy is under the umbrella of the Paducah Symphony Orchestra and provides affordable music instruction to children and adults in a community music school setting. For years, the Walter C. Jetton School building was the venue for Paducah Symphony Orchestra concerts. It now serves as a campus for the orchestra's administrative offices and music academy. The PSO Academy at 401 Walter Jetton Blvd. includes eight teaching studios for individual lessons, one teaching room for group rehearsals, and a performance hall that seats about 570 people.
The PSO endeavors to provide the very best musical experiences for participants while focusing on the whole person including the head and heart. The focus of the curriculum is to better themselves holistically through active participation in music, through instilling in each a motivation to work both independently and as part of a team, increased self-discipline, and a sense of gratitude for their opportunities. We aim to develop individuals with a lifelong appreciation for and desire to participate in music.
The 2024-25 season is Maestro Ponti’s fifteenth year as Artistic Director & Conductor of the Paducah Symphony Orchestra. Winning admirers and exciting audiences with classics, pops, and opera throughout Europe, Canada, and the United States, Italian-American conductor Raffaele Livio Ponti is known as an artist of dynamic personality, charismatic performances, and superb musicianship.
Maestro Ponti has won numerous awards including prize winner of the Mario Gusella International Conductors Competition in Pescara, Italy; Italian Man of the Year, Sons of Italy in America; and recipient of the Bernard Adelstein Prize from the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Ponti was educated at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he was awarded an Artist Diploma, and earned a Bachelor of Music Degree. He then studied conducting at the Eastman School of Music with David Effron and later with Jorge Mester of Julliard. He then worked with Paul Vermel at the Conductor’s Institute of South Carolina. Abroad he spent three summers studying conducting in Siena, Italy. His primary teacher was Giuseppe Sinopoli.
Our orchestra is made up of the following individuals from throughout the region:
Ching-Yi Lin, Concertmaster
Sophia Han, Associate Concertmaster
Ela Tokarska
Boris Abramov
Julia Fisher
Adam Kujawa
Steven Kinnamon
David Johnson
Julianna Waller-Martinez
Emilia Carter
Carolina Neves
Emily Hanna-Crane, Principal
Ray Weaver
Srirangan Iyer
Julie Foster
Betsy Osoffsky
Melissa Bogle
Steve Schaffner
Megan Heithaus
Brittney Washam
Andy Braddock, Principal
Henry Hafner
Mark Hatlestad
Michael Hill
Rossana Cauti
Lisa Weaver
Sofia Ponti
Meghan Berindean, Principal
Amber Den Exter
Sara Edgerton
Ian Schroeder
John Marietta
Alex Francois
Nikki Fuller
Greg Olson, Principal
Sydney Rodway
John Ownby
Jacob Siener
Charlie Blanton
Lisa Wolynec, Principal
Kala Allen-Dunn
Grace Woodworth, Principal
Amy Mitchum
Gabrielle Baffoni, Principal
Rebecca Hill
Lyz Aleksander
Dong-Yun Shankle, Principal
Adriel Gonzalez
Scott Erickson
Jennifer Presar, Principal
Jessie Thoman
Gail Page
Joseph Van Fleet, Principal
Ped Foster
Deborah Caldwell
Joseph Frye, Principal
Tony Brown
Morgan Kinslow, Principal
Chris Nelsen, Principal
Julie Hill, Principal
Josh Powell
Shane Mizicko
Shane Melvin
Simone Parker
Reece King, CEO
Bailey Arnett, Patron Services Coordinator
Grace Woodworth, PSO Academy Director
Todd Birdsong, Operations Director
Cindy Poat, Administrative Assistant
James Long, Chairman
Debbie Reynolds, Secretary
Connie Poat, Vice Chair
Richard Roof, Vice Chair
Bob Turok, Past Chair
Allison Ogden, Chair-Elect
Robert Carter
Natalie Davis
Nancy Duff
Andrew DuPerrieu
Brian Farrell
Jeane Framptom
Juliette Grumley
James Gwinn, Jr.
Clay Howerton
Anthony Hunter
Theodore S. Hutchins
Harold Jones
Nicholas Lopez
Eddie Narozniak
Phyllis Petcoff
Michael Resnick
Debbie Shelton
Richard Smith
Tori Smoyer
Shelley Tapp
Laura Taylor
Carol Ullerich
Raffaele Livio Ponti, Artistic Director & Conductor
Bradley Almquist, Director of Choruses
Samantha Veal, Youth Chorus Conductor
Rhonda King, Librarian
Steven Page, Summer Music Camp Director
Margaret Hunt Arnold, deceased
John Drew
Charles Folsom, deceased
Bill Ford, deceased
Ted Hirsch, deceased
Richard Holland, deceased
C.P. Orr, MD, deceased
Harolyn Rasche
Richard Roberts, deceased
John Shadle, Jr.
Jack Tick, deceased
Roger Truitt
John Williams, Jr.
Nancy Duff
Anne F. Gwinn
Richard Smith
Roger Truitt
Ken Wheeler