Alastair Willis

Alastair Willis served as Resident Conductor of the Seattle Symphony from 2002-2003, after having held the post of Assistant Conductor of that orchestra since September 2000. He previously held the position of Assistant Conductor with the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras and Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Willis has appeared with the Chicago Symphony, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the St. Louis Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, Oregon Symphony, San Diego Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, and the orchestras of Hartford, Rhode Island, Knoxville and Harrisburg within the past seasons.

Born in Acton, Massachusetts, Willis received his bachelor's degree with honors from England's Bristol University and continued his studies at Kingston University, where he earned a post-graduate Certificate of Education degree, teaching classroom music from grade-school to high-school levels. He won a scholarship in 1996 to study with Maestro Larry Rachleff at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, graduating with a Master of Music degree in 1999.

Jenn Raithel Newman

Jenn Raithel Newman has been the featured soloist in several Pops concerts where she has performed everything from Puccini to Lerner & Loewe and Vaughan Williams to Jason Robert Brown.

Most recently, Newman returned to the Phoenix Symphony for their New Year’s Eve Pops Gala and again for their People’s Pops Series all under the direction of Maestro Robert Moody.

In addition to her Pops appearances, Newman was the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem. Highlights for the 2006-07 Season include Faure’s Requiem, a debut with the Arizona Musicfest in Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music and a return to the Phoenix Symphony for their People’s Pops Series under the baton of Maestro Lawrence Golan.
Roles to Newman’s credit include: “Emily” in Help, Help! The Globolinks!, “Gretel” in Hansel and Gretel and the title role in The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Newman holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in Opera and Musical Theater Performance from Arizona State University where she studied with Darleen Kliewer-Britton. Raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Newman has also sung gospel music throughout the United States. While living in New York City, she was first introduced to internationally renowned soprano Maria Spacagna, with whom she still studies today.

Newman makes her home in Arizona with her husband, bass-baritone James Newman, and their daughter, Lyla Grace.