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.

He has been at the forefront of symphonic video/live music productions, conducting live-to-movie scores of Harry Potter with Cine Concerts,Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean, Singing in the Rain, the Charlie Chaplin silent film The Gold Rush, to name a few, and most recently Star Wars: A New Hope.

Richardson is presently the Principal Pops Conductor and Resident Conductor of the Omaha Symphony. Since 1992, he has laid the groundwork for and led in the development of the Omaha Symphony’s successful Symphony Pops and the vaunted education and community engagement programs. He also holds the position of music director and principal conductor of the Steamboat Symphony Orchestra. Under his leadership the organization has grown from a community orchestra to a resident professional orchestra, attracting 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.

In addition to conducting, Richardson is an accomplished composer and arranger, strategic planning facilitator, and occasional violist. He enjoys working with singers and choral ensembles. He has been known to help his sons build award-winning pinewood derby cars and craft his own batons. An avid fly fisherman, he has also earned a black belt in tae kwon do. He lives in Omaha with his wife and children.

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Tomáseen Foley grew up on a small farm in the remote parish of Teampall an Ghleanntáin in the West of Ireland - where storytelling ‘was as natural as breathing.’ Each year from Thanksgiving through the Christmas season, his show, Tomáseen Foley's A Celtic Christmas, plays to critical acclaim and packed concert halls all over the US. He also tours annually with Brian Bigley's An Irish Rambling House. In conjunction with the Omaha Symphony/Edmonton Symphony/Nashville Symphony he features as narrator/storyteller in A Celtic Journey. His story, Parcel from America was developed into a musical and produced to critical acclaim at Ireland's oldest theatre, the Smock Ally Theatre in Dublin in May 2022. He has released several CDs: A Celtic Christmas: Parcel from America; a live recording, The Priest and the Acrobat, and, most recently Celtic Knots: An Irish Love Story.

“He is a master of the Irish narrative and a keeper of the flame for a priceless piece of Irish culture.” - Rego Irish Records.

TomaseenFoley.com

Susanna Perry Gilmore enjoys a multifaceted career as solo artist, chamber musician, and orchestral concertmaster. Performing on both modern and period instruments and versatile in diverse styles from classical to fiddling, she is hailed as a player who is both “thrilling and sensitive” by the Memphis Commercial Appeal, “luminous and hypnotic” by the Omaha World-Herald, and “authentic with exquisite good taste” and "rich in tone, bringing musical depth and a human touch" by the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

After beginning her career as a chamber player, at the age of twenty-six Ms. Gilmore became concertmaster of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. She joined the Omaha Symphony as concertmaster in 2011. Since 2014 she has been a frequent soloist and co-concertmaster on baroque violin and fiddle with the acclaimed period instrument ensemble and Grammy Award winner Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland), with whom she tours nationally and internationally and appears on the CD Sugarloaf Mountain: An Appalachian Gathering (Billboard Top 10 classical bestseller), the CD Sephardic Journey: Wanderings of the Spanish Jews (Billboard Top 10 classical bestseller), and Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain.

Ms. Gilmore holds a Bachelor’s degree from Oxford University (UK), where she studied musicology and performed both early music and symphonic repertoire while studying privately with Yfrah Neaman. She spent a post-graduate year in the Advanced Solo Studies Program at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Upon returning to the United States, she earned a Master’s in Violin Performance from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with James Buswell. Prior to her studies in England, Ms. Gilmore studied with Christian Teal at the Blair School of Music in the pre-college program and as a child began her violin studies with Mimi Zweig at Indiana University. Ms. Gilmore learned to play Celtic fiddle in her youth through sitting in on Irish sessions during her years living in Nashville and England.

When not working as a classical and baroque violinist and fiddler, Ms. Gilmore spends time with her two daughters, Katy and Zoe, and her husband, Viseslav Drincic. She performs on a 1776 Joseph Odoardi violin.

William Coulter is an internationally acclaimed, Grammy award winning master of the steel-string guitar. His most recent recording, The Rolling Waves, was released in December 2022 on the Gourd Music label. This solo project is a collection of original arrangements of folk and original music from the Celtic lands and beyond. His duo with Edwin Huizinga, Fire & Grace, released their third CD, Alma, in 2021 and the duo has been taking their music on the road again with performances around the US. Coulter has been Music Director for Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas since 1998, and has performed with the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Apollo’s Fire and many other ensembles. In March of 2016 he debuted Celtic Journey, a full length pops concert with the Omaha Symphony featuring Irish singers, dancers, musicians and story-teller. Collaborations have been a mainstay of his career including tours and recordings with Gourd Music artists Neal Hellman and Barry and Shelley Phillips; classical guitar virtuoso Benjamin Verdery, and Irish flute wizard Brian Finnegan. Tours have taken him around the states and to Ireland, Europe, Taiwan, New Zealand, Chile, and most recently Australia. Coulter teaches classical guitar at UC Santa Cruz and at many summer camps and festivals. Coulter earned degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the university of hard knocks.

Brian Bigley comes from a musical family on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio where he first heard the ethereal sound of the Uilleann Pipes at the West Side Irish American Club. Soon after, at the age of eight, he began studying with Achill Island piper Michael Kilbane. Since then, Brian's sensitivity to the art of Uilleann Piping has developed into a high level of understanding with the help of his family and the countless musicians that have crossed his path.

His interest in maintaining that ethereal sound led Brian to study the art of pipe making with the prolific pipe maker Seth Gallagher in New York and the master flute maker Patrick Olwell in Virginia. He is currently making pipes in the style of the late Dave Williams and has a waiting list.

Brian is also a world-class Irish step dancer. Studying with Bob Masterson and Catherine Leneghan from age seven, he went on to compete with distinction at the World Championships in Glasgow and Killarney.

He has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe as a piper, flute player, whistle player, and dancer with various music and dance shows including "Tomáseen Foley's A Celtic Christmas" (www.ACelticChristmas.com) which has appeared at the Medina Performing Arts Center in Medina, Ohio multiple times. He was a guest artist with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra (www.cyorcherstra.org) in Cleveland where they performed "Symphonic Led Zeppelin" at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2002) and the Masonic Auditorium (2007). He has also had the privilege of performing at Carnegie Hall in New York with the Chieftains as well as appearing on stage with legendary piper Paddy Keenan. The fall of 2007 included a tour with Orange County Irish rock band "The Fenians" as well as appearing at the Milwaukee Irish Fest with the Trinity Irish Dancers. In March of 2016, Brian was a featured dancer and musician with The Omaha Symphony's production of "Celtic Journey" (www.celticjourney.org), a symphonic presentation of traditional Irish music, dance, and storytelling.

Competitive accolades include taking first prize for senior piping at the Midwest Regional Fleadh Cheoil and taking second place at the Fleadh in Drogheda, Ireland in 2019.

Brian now lives near Cleveland, Ohio with his fiddler wife, Kristen, and their dancing children, James and Kathleen.

Samantha Harvey, originally from California but now residing in County Sligo, Ireland, is a prominent traditional music and dance performer. Highly-skilled in step dancing and as an instrumentalist on piano and accordion, Samantha has performed throughout the world with groups such as Téada, Ireland The Show, Irish Christmas in America, and Tomáseen Foley’s Irish Times. This performance work has involved concerts and festivals in Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Europe, and the United States. Samantha was privileged to perform in RTÉ’s Centenary, broadcast live on television from the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin.

Tenor Ross Hauck is thrilled to bring Celtic Journey to Detroit and back to Omaha. Ross has sung with orchestras and music festivals across the country. He is a lapsed cellist, an average pianist, a pun aficionado, and a decent lyricist (he “distills” a new local Whiskey in the Jar for each Celtic Journey). He loves limericks but hates wearing a tux. He is an alum of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Ross has won some awards and gained some plaudits, but his greatest prize is his wife and four kids, the oldest of which is named Daniel (“Danny boy”). They live in the foothills outside Seattle where he is both a voice professor and church music director.

Garrett Coleman is a dancer, choreographer, and actor best known for his featured performance and role as cochoreographer in the Original Broadway Musical, Paradise Square, for which he won a Drama Desk Award, a Chita Rivera Award, and received a Tony Nomination for Best Choreography. He is a two-time solo World Champion in Irish dance and has won 17 other national and international titles. Garrett toured professionally with Riverdance, Trinity Irish Dance Company, Cherish the Ladies, The Chieftains, and others. He performed at the Kennedy Center in 2006 as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, is a YoungArts award winner, and has twice been named one of the “Top 100 Irish Americans” by Irish America Magazine. He is the co-founder of HAMMERSTEP, a NYC-based dance company integrating Irish step with hip hop, stepping, and martial arts. Garrett has starred in Hammerstep performances worldwide from NYC’s Lincoln Center to London’s West End Palace Theatre to NBC’s America’s Got Talent. Garrett is the co-creator of the sci-fi theatre drama INDIGO GREY, a narrative universe presented as episodic content including an award-winning film and a sold-out live immersive experience. His work has received critical acclaim from publications such as Rolling Stone, Billboard, Huffington Post, and Wired Magazine

Beginning Irish Dance at age 7, Caitlin Golding- Coleman has been dancing for the past 28 years. She began her studies with the Broesler School of Irish Dance in Baltimore, Maryland, and owned the Golding Academy of Movement and Dance in New York as a certified An Coimisiun teacher for 7 years. Throughout her 14-year competitive career she won many titles. Her most upstanding accolades include five-time Southern Region Champion, top three North American Champion, top ten World Champion, top three Great Britain Champion, and top ten All Ireland Champion. After receiving her degree in social work from the University of Maryland, Caitlin began to pursue her professional Irish Dance career. On her first audition in London, Caitlin was the only American selected to tour in the return of Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance, kicking off in Belgium. From there she continued touring with Lord of the Dance and Feet of Flames globally. Most recently, Caitlin starred in Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games on Broadway. In addition, Caitlin was lead soloist and dance captain with acclaimed productions Spirit of Ireland and Dance of Desire worldwide. She has had the honor of performing alongside legendary Irish musicians Cherish the Ladies, The Chieftains, and Eileen Ivers including collaborations with the Omaha Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Meyerhoff Symphony, and Kennedy Center among others. While competing, performing, teaching, and navigating injuries, Caitlin developed a deep appreciation for spiritual health leading her to the movement method, Pilates. After completion of Harmony Pilates Pittsburgh Teacher Course, Caitlin has utilized her broad movement education to create a unique and holistic approach to not only Irish dance, but a vibrant lifestyle. Caitlin married her lifelong dance partner, Garrett Coleman, in 2019 and together they have a 2-year-old daughter, Eibhilín. They currently reside in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.