By Dr. Thomas Heuser, Music Director, Idaho Falls Symphony
The 75th Anniversary Season of the Idaho Falls Symphony features 10 guest artists, including the legendary banjo player, Béla Fleck. Our orchestra of more than 60 musicians will perform music by more than 25 composers. Our youth orchestra program includes over 100 students, and the festival chorus for Handel’s Messiah will bring together over 100 local singers. By the numbers, it will be an historic Sapphire Season, and our doors are now open to welcome thousands to the symphony!
Opening Acts
When the German composer Emelie Mayer died in Berlin in 1883, she was famous for her 8 symphonies and huge catalog of chamber music. She had been forgotten until recently, and when we play her Symphony in F Minor on Saturday, Nov. 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the Frontier Center for the Performing Arts in Idaho Falls, it will mark the first time we have played her music in our 75-year history. Mayer was often the soloist for her own piano concerto, and she broke boundaries in her lifetime as a leading woman in the arts. Bringing her voice back into the spotlight will reveal countless lost treasures.
Jessica Meyer started her compositional career in 2014 at the age of 40. She has since gained widespread international attention for her music, and she combines her viola playing and teaching with a life as a busy composer. The Idaho Falls Symphony joined a group of orchestras from across the United States to commission a new work, Turbulent Flames, which will have only its second performance with the IFS – with Jessica as Composer-In-Residence – as part of that concert. She will also provide a free public workshop called Awakening Your Inner Composer, a chance to explore musical concepts with non-musicians and enthusiasts alike.
The event that features Emelie Mayer and Jessica Meyer has been crafted as an exploration of Her Song in 3 Voices. Alongside the passionate and unique orchestral writing of these two composers, our beloved IFS Concertmaster, Emma Rubinstein, will evoke the exotic moods and tantalizing virtuosity of Tzigane, a rhapsody for violin and orchestra by the famed French composer, Maurice Ravel. Emma brings fire and intensity to every performance, and having her musical personality voiced through her solo violin will be a fascinating addition to this remarkable night of music.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Korngold was a serious composer starting at age 8. He was born in 1897 with the talent of a young Mozart, and earned high praise from Europe’s best musicians before turning to a career in Hollywood. He was the first to enter into an exclusive composing contract with Warner Bros., and in 1938, he moved his family to the United States, vowing not to compose any more concert music until Hitler was removed from power.
His first movie score while in exile– The Adventures of Robin Hood – earned him his second Oscar. The exhilarating score is rarely heard live, but it will be part of an unforgettable opening night: Notes From the Silver Screen, Saturday, Oct. 19 at 7:30pm in the Frontier Center for the Performing Arts. Alongside Korngold, film composers like John Williams and Elmer Bernstein will be highlighted, plus movie music drawn from the symphony hall, including selections by Mozart, Beethoven, Claude Debussy, and Richard Strauss’s iconic Also Sprach Zarathustra.
And that’s just scratching the surface! Visit www.ifsymphony.org for tickets and complete information about the 2024-25 season. Now is the time to get your tickets and mark your calendars for each and every event! The concerts of the Idaho Falls Symphony are once-in-a-lifetime experiences, backed by an all-volunteer Board of Directors and a professional staff, with a mission to enrich, educate, and entertain our audiences and musicians through the presentation of the world’s great music.