APPLETON (NBC26) — It’s music to everyone’s ears: the Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra will perform this fall.
“What we live for is to make music together," said Kevin Sütterlin, music director. “It’s being together with the people that you love and that you care about, and I really have missed them a lot, and I know they have missed each other too, so it’s going to be pretty special.“
It’s been over a year since Sütterlin stood in front of his orchestra, and the musicians could not be more excited.
“I feel like a school girl," said Yuliya Smead, first chair violin. "The first time going to play a concert.”
For Smead, music is expression.
“It’s been crippling," she said, of the past year. "As musicians, we're thriving on playing with other people. Creating music is something you don’t do on your own, so the big part of why we all became musicians has been taken out of our lives for a whole year.”
Laura Kenney Henckel, principal cellist, is most looking forward to performing.
“I love seeing what music does to the audience," she said. I love being up on stage and seeing their emotions, and I can feel their energy, and that inspires me to be even better.“
Henckel will be the soloist in the orchestra’s April 2022 performance.
“It’s nice for the community to see people that they know up on the stage in the limelight," she said.
The theme for the next season is joy and celebration, said Sütterlin. More than two-thirds of the pieces coming from historically underrepresented composers.
“It’s us learning about the wealth of incredible music that’s out there that has not been performed for all the wrong reasons," he said. "Someone’s color of their skin, someone’s gender identity, sexual orientation. None of these things should matter in the creation of true masterpieces.“
The 2021-22 season schedule is as following:
NOVEMBER 20, 2021
- Guest Artist: Victor Santiago Asuncion, Piano
- Theresa Martin: City of Ambition (World Premiere)
- Florence Price: Symphony No.3 in C minor
- Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B-flat minor, op.23, TH 55
JANUARY 29, 2022
- Guest Artist: Marty Erickson (Principal Tuba, FVSO)
- Scott L. Hines: Star Fire (Commission, World Premiere)
- Mary D. Watkins: Soul of Remembrance (From “Five Movements in Color II”)
- Arild Plau: Concerto for Tuba and Strings
- Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No.5 in D minor, op.47
MARCH 12, 2022
- Louise Farrenc: Overture No. 1, op.23, E minor
- Jessie Montgomery: Soul Force
- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Ballade in A minor, op.33
- Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, op.35
APRIL 9, 2022
- Guest Artist: Laura Kenney Henckel (Principal Cello, FVSO)
- Christopher Ducasse: Fòs nou (Our Strength)
- Edward Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, op.85
- Stella Sung: The Phoenix Rising
- Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite
Orchestra subscribers can renew their seats by May 31. New ticket buyers can visit foxvalleysymphony.com to order tickets.
