Masterworks 4 Immortal Beloved

Joseph Giunta Conductor

One of America’s most distinguished, versatile and dynamic conductors, Joseph Giunta is a musician of international acclaim. He is recognized as an important American conductor for his innovative programming and for his compelling interpretations of traditional and new music. His musical depth combined with his boundless energy and contagious enthusiasm makes him one of the most respected and successful orchestra leaders in the United States.

Learn More About Maestro Giunta

Natasha Paremski Piano

With her consistently striking and dynamic performances, Russian-born pianist Natasha Paremski reveals astounding virtuosity and voracious interpretive abilities. She continues to generate excitement from all corners as she wins over audiences with her musical sensibility and powerful, flawless technique.

Ms. Paremski is a regular return guest of many major orchestras, including the Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and more. She has performed every year since 2008 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in venues such as Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, and Cadogan Hall. She has performed with major orchestras in North America including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, and Baltimore Symphony.

A passionate chamber musician, Ms. Paremski is a regular recital partner of Grammy winning cellist Zuill Bailey. She has been a guest of many chamber music festivals such as Jeffrey Kahane’s Green Music Center ChamberFest, the Lockenhaus, Toronto, Sitka Summer Music, and Cape Cod Chamber Music festivals.

Ms. Paremski has been awarded several prestigious prizes, including the Gilmore Young Artists prize in 2006 at the age of eighteen, the Prix Montblanc in 2007, and the Orpheum Stiftung Prize in Switzerland. In September 2010, she was awarded the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year. Her first recital album was released in 2011 to great acclaim, topping the Billboard Classical Charts. In 2012, she recorded Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Rhapsody with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Fabien Gabel on the Orchestra’s label distributed by Naxos.

She has toured extensively in Europe with such orchestras as Vienna’s Tonkünstler Orchester, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic and more, under the direction of such conductors as Thomas Dausgaard, Peter Oundjian, Andres Orozco-Estrada, and JoAnn Falletta. In addition, she has toured with Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica.

With a strong focus on new music, Natasha Paremski’s growing repertoire reflects an artistic maturity beyond her years. In the 2010-11 season, she played the world premiere of a sonata written for her by Gabriel Kahane, which was also included in her solo album.

Ms. Paremski continues to extend her performance activity and range beyond the traditional concert hall. In December 2008, she was the featured pianist in choreographer Benjamin Millepied’s Danses Concertantes at New York’s Joyce Theater. She was featured in a two-part film for BBC Television on the life and work of Tchaikovsky, performing excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto and other works. In the winter of 2007, Ms. Paremski participated along with Simon Keenlyside in the filming of Twin Spirits, a project starring Sting and Trudie Styler that explores the music and writing of Robert and Clara Schumann.

Natasha Paremski began her piano studies at the age of four with Nina Malikova at Moscow’s Andreyev School of Music. She then studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music before moving to New York to study with Pavlina Dokovska at the Mannes College of Music, from which she graduated in 2007. Ms. Paremski made her professional debut at age nine with the El Camino Youth Symphony in California. At the age of fifteen, she debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and recorded two discs with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra.

Born in Moscow, Ms. Paremski moved to the United States at the age of eight becoming a U.S. citizen shortly thereafter. She now lives in New York.

This is Ms. Paremski’s second appearance with the Des Moines Symphony. She previously appeared on September 26 & 27, 2015 playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto. No. 1.

Campbell Helton Piano

Campbell Helton is a junior at Theodore Roosevelt High School/Central Academy in Des Moines. She has played piano for 11 years and studies with Marlene Bachelder. In 2020, she won the Des Moines Symphony Academy Youth Orchestra’s Young Artist Competition and performed Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto with the Des Moines Symphony. In May of 2021, she performed the Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Ottumwa Symphony as that orchestra’s concerto competition winner. She is also a three-time Music Teachers National Association piano division competition participant. In addition to the piano, Ms. Helton is a violinist and vocalist. As a violinist, she plays in the Des Moines Symphony Youth Symphony and Honors String Quartet, and was Concertmaster at the Iowa High School Music Association’s 2021 All-State Music Festival. As a vocalist, she has participated in various choirs, Des Moines Playhouse productions (Ragtime, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), and the Des Moines Metro Opera children’s chorus in Turandot. Ms. Helton has three siblings and two dogs and in her free time loves drawing, playing basketball, acting, watching movies, and spending time with friends.

This is Ms. Helton’s second appearance with the Des Moines Symphony. She most recently appeared on March 3 & 4, 2020 in the Symphony’s annual Youth Concerts.

Katy Merriman Actor

Katy Merriman has been an active member of the theatre community since moving to Des Moines in 2013. She has performed previously with the Des Moines Symphony in Ellis Island: Dream of a New World as Helen Lansman Cohen, and with the Indianapolis Symphony in Yuletide and Anything Goes in Concert. Her local stage credits include work with Iowa Stage Theatre Company (formerly Repertory Theatre of Iowa) in Our Town (Emily), Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear (Cordelia), The Glass Menagerie (Laura), and The Diary of Anne Frank (Margot). She also appeared in Into the Woods (Cinderella), Les Misérables (Cosette), and Legally Blonde the Musical (Elle Woods) at the Des Moines Playhouse. She has directed and music directed in and around the Des Moines area at Dallas-Center Grimes High school (She Kills Monsters, School Edition; Our Town), Roosevelt High School, Class Act Productions, Iowa Stage Theatre Company (Fun Home) and the Des Moines Playhouse (The Sound of Music, Godspell, A Love Offering – Co-produced with Pyramid Theatre Company, Some Enchanted Evening). Prior to her time in Des Moines, Katy worked with numerous theatres in the region as a performer, director, and administrator. She has a Bachelor of Music from Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana and is the Artistic Director at the Des Moines Playhouse. 

James Serpento Actor

James Serpento is a Resident Artist Company member of Iowa Stage Theatre Company and has appeared in a number of their productions including, most recently, The Cake and It’s A Wonderful Life, as well as Cloris-nominated performances in The Lion in Winter and A View from the Bridge. He earned his MFA in Acting from Indiana University, is a founder or co-founder of several entertainment companies, and has worked as stage and screen artist and educator across the U.S. for forty years. Among his other favorite acting projects are St. Joan at Chicago’s Bailiwick Repertory, Teach in American Buffalo, and new plays at the renowned Chicago Dramatists, where he is a Resident Playwright Alumnus.  Screen appearances include Impulse and Spread by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (writers of A Quiet Place), The Final Season, and several features by Thor Moreno. He has also written and directed extensively for both stage and screen, with his several current projects including co-authorship of book and lyrics for a new musical version of The Bacchae. Most importantly, however, he is the proud dad of fourteen-year-old gaming artist extraordinaire, Samuel.