Celebrate America! – Weirton
Saturday, July 5, 2025
Join us in Weirton, WV for our annual Celebrate America! tour.
Featuring patriotic favorites alongside operatic classics, this year we are pleased to welcome soprano Vanessa Beccera as our guest vocalist.
Celebrate America is free to attend. The concert begins at 8:00 pm.
Please note that pets, coolers, outside food and drink, and smoking are prohibited. For more information, visit the Top of WV website.
Featuring
John Devlin, conductor
Conductor John Gennaro Devlin is an ardent champion of American music, an innovator of concert design, and a thought leader in the field of classical music. In his seventh season as Music Director of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, Devlin is only the ninth conductor in its 90-year history to hold that title. Devlin’s artistry and versatility make him a frequent guest conductor with major orchestras across the nation. His engagements include performances with the National Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Elgin Symphony Orchestra, and the American Repertory Ballet. Of his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra and violin soloist Joshua Bell, Anne Midgette of The Washington Post wrote that Devlin “led the evening with flair … and was visibly in his element.” A strong advocate for American music, Devlin has made it a programmatic focus and has premiered over 40 new American works. His artistic partnerships with contemporary American composers include a decade-long relationship with Eric Nathan, from whom he has commissioned works that he performed at Carnegie Hall and with the National Symphony Orchestra. Devlin has also premiered works by Adolphus Hailstork, Leanna Primiani, Michael-Thomas Foumai, Enrico Lopez-Yañez, Michael Ellis Ingram, Evan Meier, Alexandra Bryant, Nathan Strasser, Tomek Regulski, Daniel Houglum, Timothy Brady, Matthew Levine, Christopher Caliendo, Liza Kravinsky, and David Matthews. In addition, Devlin commissioned and conducted the world premiere of La Saulaie, a semi-finished work of Claude Debussy that was subsequently completed by British composer and musicologist Robert Orledge. Also a leader in designing concerts that frame orchestral music in inventive ways, Devlin has partnered with others to generate such forward-looking concepts as Gourmet Symphony, Go-Go Symphony, Seamless Symphony, Interactive Symphony, and the New Retro Project. These collaborations paired artists such as Joshua Bell with gourmet chefs, and legendary musicians like Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, and Larry Graham with symphony orchestras for the first time. Each reflects Devlin’s mission of making the symphonic art form accessible and engaging for all audiences. The Washington Post hailed these projects as “refreshingly unfamiliar” events that deliver “a new audience for classical music” and brought “the sold-out house to its feet, cheering.” John Gennaro Devlin is an American conductor of Italian and Irish heritage. He completed his master’s and doctoral degrees in orchestral conducting under the tutelage of James Ross at the University of Maryland. His undergraduate degree is from Emory University, where he graduated summa cum laude with a double major in Clarinet Performance and Latin. While a student, he benefitted enormously from his time as a member of the New York Youth Symphony, at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and at the Pierre Monteux School. His professional career has been shaped by his time as an assistant to conductors Gianandrea Noseda, Christoph Eschenbach, Rossen Milanov, and Victoria Gau.
Vanessa Beccera, soprano
Peruvian & Mexican American Soprano Vanessa Becerra’s 24/25 season is highlighted by her return to LA Opera for Ainadamar (Nuria). Additional engagements include her house and titular role debut in Paër’s Leonora at Chicago Opera Theater, and debuts at UC Davis in Don Pasquale (Norina), Berkshire Opera Festival in La traviata (Violetta) and Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera in Le nozze di Figaro (Susanna). On the concert stage, Vanessa debuts with Madison Symphony Orchestra as a guest soloist for their holiday concert, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for their Spanish Journey program on tour, and the Boise Philharmonic as the Soprano Soloist in Mozart’s Requiem. Last season, Vanessa was a featured soloist at Fort Worth Opera’s annual gala, debuted with Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera in Die Fledermaus (Adele) and returned to Opera Omaha for Don Pasquale (Norina), Minnesota Opera for L'elisir d'amore (Adina), Arizona Opera for Don Giovanni (Zerlina), and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for Galileo Galilei (Maria Celeste/Eos). On the concert stage she debuted with The Phoenix Symphony for Messiah. In the 22/23 season, she made debuts with Florida Grand Opera for El matrimonio secreto (Carolina), and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for Così fan tutte (Despina) along with returns to Minnesota Opera for La fille du régiment (Marie), Opera Omaha for Le nozze di Figaro (Susanna), and Houston Grand Opera for El Milagro del Recuerdo (La Mujer). On the concert stage, she debuted with the newly formed San Antonio Philharmonic. Vanessa has made debuts at The Metropolitan Opera in Cendrillon (Noémie), Boston Lyric Opera in Roméo et Juliette (Juliette), Intermountain Opera Bozeman in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina), Austin Opera in Fidelio (Marzelline), Opera Parallèle in La Belle et la Bête (Belle), Houston Grand Opera in the world premiere of El Milagro del Recuerdo (La mujer), Washington National Opera in Don Giovanni (Zerlina), and Arizona Opera for the feature length film adaptation and world premiere of The Copper Queen (Julia Lowell). She also has debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel in Die Zauberflöte (Papagena), San Francisco Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas in Candide (Paquette), Lyric Opera of Chicago in Fellow Travelers (Miss Lightfoot), Opera Delaware and Baltimore Concert Opera in Werther (Sophie), Opera Omaha in Medea (Glauce), and Atlanta Opera in Sweeney Todd (Johanna). Vanessa recently returned to Opera San José for the title role in Il segreto di Susanna by Wolf-Ferrari, following her success at Opera San Jose as the title role in Alma Deutscher's Cinderella (featured internationally on Medici.tv) conducted by Jane Glover. Additional recent appearances include Washington National Opera for Sankaram’s Rise (Alicia Hernández), part of the world premiere tetralogy Written in Stone and Francesca Zambello’s West Side Story (Maria) with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, The Glimmerglass Festival, and Atlanta Opera. In concert, she debuted with Minnesota Opera for Ópera Afuera, St. Croix Valley Opera for a concert of popular arias entitled Opera on the River, and returned to Fort Worth Opera for Entre Amigos. Ms. Becerra is a graduate of the Young Artist Program at the Los Angeles Opera. During her time with LAO, she appeared in Le nozze di Figaro (Barbarina), Die Zauberflöte (Papagena), La traviata (Annina), Gossip 2 in the GRAMMY Awardwinning recording of Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, and as a featured soloist in a concert with bass-baritone Erwin Schrott. Vanessa enjoys a long relationship with The Glimmerglass Festival where she has been seen in Oklahoma! (Laurey), La bohème (Musetta), and in their Young Artist performances of The Magic Flute (Pamina). Other training programs include Wolf Trap Opera Company, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Seagle Music Colony. She received her master’s degree from The Boston Conservatory, her bachelor’s degree from Texas Christian University in her hometown of Fort Worth, TX and is a graduate of the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts.
