Orchestras to perform with guest soloist

By Steven Chen
<stevenchen@hilite.org>

Next Tuesday, all the high school and three middle school’s orchestras will perform at Hilbert Circle Theater, home of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO). Zach De Pue, concertmaster of the ISO, will solo with three students in Symphony.

Yifan “Peter” Hua, concertmaster of Symphony Orchestra and senior, said, “The opportunity to play (at Hilbert) is simply tremendous and spectacular. It’s a professional hall so everything just sounds that much better. Everything just comes alive at Hilbert.”

Orchestra Director Soo Han said he has been looking forward to it since the beginning of the school year.

“I think it has a potential to be the highlighted orchestra event of the year,” he said. “It’s very rare for school programs and orchestras to take on something so big and something so demanding at the beginning of the year.”

The theater granted CHS to play there after Han contacted the administration there. Han said, “In terms of students’ side of things, it’s just a lot of work getting ready for this. We are very aware and know the sanctity of playing at Hilbert Circle. You don’t want to go and play bad at Hilbert because it’s a sacred performance.”

In fact, students have been preparing for this since before the start of school with a week of rehearsals. He said, “That’s when we handed out the music, so since then we’ve been going at it. We start at a different level than anybody else does so that’s all part of it for us to start really high and just go even higher from there.”

Han has background experience in orchestra, but said that he has never tackled anything like this with a high school orchestra program since no high school has ever performed at Hilbert.

In addition, Han said that he is excited to work with De Pue, who is an up-and-coming young performer.

“He’s just going to take the music scene by storm in just a little bit here, and we’re very fortunate to have someone like Zach in Indianapolis and for him to be willing to do something like this with our students at Hilbert Circle,” Han said. Along with De Pue, junior Hong Yang “Jimmy” Sun, senior Tianyi Zhang and Hua will be accompanying him in a solo on Vivaldi’s “Concerto for Four Violins.”

According to Han, Symphony Orchestra will also play a composition by local composer Jim Beckel, who plays trumpet for the ISO. The pieces that will be featured include “Musica Mobilis” by Beckel, Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings,” the first movement of the “Mars” by Gustav Holst and “Orange Blossom Special,” an improvisation fiddle piece with De Pue. Both Han and Orchestra Director Rachel Tookolo will conduct the orchestras with the middle school directors conducting their respective orchestras.

The concert will last approximately a little over two hours. Han said, “Hilbert Circle here is the premiere performance hall in Indiana. It’s the home of the Indiana Symphony Orchestra and a gorgeous hall with great acoustics and I’m really excited that the students at CHS have an opportunity to plan on the stage because it’s just magic.”

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St. Olaf College Orchestra

• Private, liberal arts college in Minnesota
• 92-member orchestra founded in 1906
• Embarked on first tour in 1949 under direction of Donald Berglund
• Second Philharmonia Orchestra formed in 1976
• Performs annually in the United States, along with tours of Europe and Scandinavia

STOLAF.EDU / SOURCE

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Hilbert Circle Theatre

• Hilbert Circle Theatre, originally named Circle Theatre, opened in 1916 as one of the nation’s first grand movie palaces
• Circle Theatre opened on Oct. 12, 1984 as the home of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, which began in 1930 under direction of German conductor Ferdinand Schaefer
• It has featured many leading entertainers, including Tommy Dorsey, Spike Jones, Frank Sinatra, Rudy Vallee, Tex Ritter, Glenn Miller and Erroll Garner

HILBERTCIRCLETHEATREINDY.ORG / SOURCE