The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra celebrates the 24-25 season with opportunities to see five ISO musicians in solo performances on the Hilbert Circle Theatre stage. The new season offers unique and exciting programs featuring new works, unconventional perspectives, and fresh storytelling—with the incredible talents of ISO musicians on full display. Read on for more about the ISO musicians bringing these pieces to life, and what to expect from each performance.
Mozart and the Misfits
October 31st-November 2nd
Su-Han Yang, conductor
Austin Huntington, cello
These performances merge the enduring magic of Mozart with the unique charm of two accompanying pieces that pay homage to the humor and rhythm of his music. Schnittke’s Moz-Art a la Haydn incorporates music from an unfinished piece by Mozart intended to accompany a pantomime, and portrays the theatrical nature of such a whimsical medium.
Gulda’s Concerto for Cello and Winds offers the soaring freedom of various styles of music and sonic influences, merging jazz with funk, dance hall with Austrian countryside, and more in a liberatory and improvisational exploration. The ISO’s own Austin Huntington will take the stage for this concerto, bringing a thrilling fresh perspective to Gulda’s work.
Kevin Lin Plays Mozart
March 6th-March 8th
Nic McGegan, conductor
Kevin Lin, violin
Written in 1730, Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 is this season’s oldest piece of music. McGegan’s traditional style of conducting and rigorous discipline requested of accompanying musicians bring the centuries-celebrated beauty of Baroque art to life on stage. When paired with Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 – a widely performed concerto that presents a new challenge for Lin – Bach’s orchestral arrangement shines.
Lin speaks highly of Maestro McGegan’s classical approach, and anticipates the process of working with him on this solo.
“I love a challenge, and I love being able to step out of my comfort zone as a modern day classical musician to embody that historically accurate performance,” Lin said. “I think first of all it’s very exciting to me, but it’s also quite a task.”
In bringing a historically accurate approach to Bach’s work, Lin described McGegan’s preference for performing violin solos with no “wiggling” of the fingers on the neck of the violin to create a vibrato tone – a relatively recent technique developed after the Baroque period. In taking on this new challenge and performing Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 for the first time, Lin is ready to showcase the ISO’s versatility.
“It’s a testament to show that the ISO is capable of performing in very many different styles,” Lin said. “We can do something as historically accurate as this, and then we can do a movie like Elf, and then we can do Steve Hackman’s absolutely ingenious mash-ups. I think it’s pretty cool that we can do whatever we set our minds to here.”
Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5
May 29th – May 31st
David Danzmayr, conductor
Ju-Fang Liu, bass
In this program, Principal Bassist Ju-Fang Liu shines in an ISO commission world premiere of James Beckel’s Double Bass Concerto. Continuing Beckel’s legacy as principal trombonist of the ISO from 1969-2018, his daughter Julie Beckel also plays in the ISO horn section. This rare opportunity for bass to shine has been an energizing and collaborative process for Liu, who hopes audiences will connect with the warmth of the music she and Beckel have created together.
“This is an aspect of the role of a bass player in an orchestra. In [Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5] we do the bottom part that will support the rest of the orchestra, for them to try to shine,” Liu said. “We just do basically the background work, but important background work. But with this concerto, I get to shine in a very cool way that is so different.”
Liu is excited to perform the contrast between the brazen emotion of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and the sonic journey of Beckel’s new piece. Audiences will walk away with an almost “cinematic’ understanding of the narrative.
“Tchaikovsky No. 5 is like meat and potatoes, a really thick and awesome German meal full of muscles. But with this concerto, it’s like a French restaurant,” Liu said. “It’s very delicate, very interesting. Everything has a history behind it. I think the audience will not only hear [Beckel’s] signature sound, but they will also hear my input as an immigrant who came to the stage just to study music.”
Symphonie fantastique
June 13-June 14
Jun Märkl, conductor
Jennifer Christen, ISO Principal Oboe
Ivy Ringel, ISO Principal Bassoon
Audience’s excitement for new horizons of storytelling will certainly be satiated with this program’s world premiere of an ISO commission from local Indianapolis composer and conductor Hanna Benn. Benn’s Concerto for Oboe and Bassoon is being written to highlight the ISO’s outstanding double reed principals Jenifer Christen and Ivy Ringel, and will premiere during the conference of the International Double Reed Society.
As the beginning of this season marks the beginning of this new collaborative process, Christen and Ringel have discussed their excitement at the opportunity to perform together and showcase their strengths.
“Ivy and I will be very invested the month or two leading up [to the performance], because that’s when it will be complete. [We’ll] meet quite a bit the month before, just to go over it and let the two of us really absorb it and put our stamp on it before the rehearsals with the orchestra start,” Christen said. “It is unique, because normally, when I’ve done other concertos or pieces that I learned in [school], I’ve already absorbed them. So I feel like this is going to be very immersive in the short term.”
Ringel echoed Christen’s anticipation, and expressed the unique circumstance in which this concerto has allowed them to work together.
“I think that it is a really exciting thing that the ISO is commissioning a local female composer like Hannah Benn; I love her music and I think that it’s a really compelling opportunity,” Ringel said. “I’ve been here for five years [and this is the first time] the ISO has commissioned specifically for me as a soloist, so that is a huge honor… [Jenifer and I] get to play together in the orchestra every single week but it’s going to be totally different and exciting to play together as soloists, not only preparing the piece [but] also getting to kind of shape the direction of the piece together.”
The electronic and vocal qualities of Benn’s work stand out, and the ISO’s opportunity to share the stage with local talent is a gift for audiences and musicians alike.
“I’m hoping the audience will really just love Hannah Benn’s music,” Christen said. “To describe it in three words, I’d say calming, captivating and personal. I’m really excited to see how she translates her style to oboe and bassoon writing, because I think it’s going to be very captivating for the audience, and very beautiful. Almost transcendent.”