Fulfilling a longstanding tradition, the youth orchestras in Springfield and Bloomington-Normal will play two songs with the Illinois Symphony this weekend as part of Holiday Pops in the Heartland. ISO music director candidate Taichi Fukumura will lead the rest of the program, in his final trip to the ISO podium as he vies for the symphony’s top job.
The program is chock full of singable holiday tunes, including “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Oh Holy Night” and “White Christmas,” featuring vocals by Illinois Wesleyan University alumna Megan Koch.
ISO assistant conductor Jacobsen Woollen, who also directs the Illinois Youth Symphony Orchestra and Springfield Choral Society, will conduct the ISO and IYSO together Friday in Springfield. Closer to home, Deanne Bryant will lead Bloomington-Normal Youth Symphony with the ISO on Saturday for the local edition of Holiday Pops. Not one to sit idly by, Woollen will join his Springfield Choral Society members in the choir loft for Saturday’s concert; the group joins for a singalong of holiday standards as the evening's closer.
It will be Bryant’s final trip to the BNYS podium, so she says, though she’s tried retiring before. Bryant created the Unit 5 string program in the late 1960s, retiring in 1993 after 25 years leading that program. Shortly after that, she was asked to fill in for a short time at Bloomington-Normal Youth Symphony—and stayed for three decades.
Bryant passed the BNYS baton to Logan Campbell this fall, and she’s not sure yet exactly what her second retirement looks like. For now, Bryant is reveling in preparing her final Holiday Pops, which is a highlight of the year for BNYS.
“It’s such a unique experience for the kids,” Bryant said in an interview for WGLT’s Sound Ideas. “It’s a different thing sitting by a professional and feeling like you’re not worthy. I want the kids to come off feeling worthy—and most of the time, they do.”
“You have to realize, this is like a youth basketball team being able to play a game with the Chicago Bulls,” Woollen said. “For them, it is both an emotional thrill and an adrenaline rush, but also an incredible learning opportunity.”
Over the years, youth players who play Holiday Pops beginning in 7th grade through their senior years recognize and develop relationships with ISO musicians.
“That can lead to these mentoring, apprenticeship-like relationships, which are so fruitful for both the kids and, I have to say, for the professionals,” Woollen said.
In their single piece on the podium, Woollen and Bryant will conduct “Nimrod,” the ninth and best-known of Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variations.” Neither conductor picked the piece; they’re not entirely sure who did.
“It’s an interesting pick on a pops concert,” Bryant said, though she and Woollen both admit to the piece’s unabashed beauty, thematic congruence and pedagogical potential. Painstakingly slow in a 3/4 time signature, "Nimrod" is a vehicle for students to glean skills like subdivision and maintaining long, luscious bowing in the strings, or breath control in the winds. The piece helps cultivate an inner pulse, allowing an ensemble to stay together.
“’Nimod’ is one of a set of many variations,” said Woollen. “Elgar wrote each variation in honor of one of his friends. ‘Nimrod’ sounds like a love song, but he wrote it as a profession of love to his best friend. I think that is quite a nice tribute to the relationship between the ISO and the youth orchestras, and also the relationship between our two youth orchestras. In that sense, it’s very fitting.”
“The professionals have come to recognize our young musicians and really enjoy seeing them,” Bryant said. Twenty years ago, when the Holiday Pops partnership began, they weren’t convinced. “Now, the companionship together, understanding the mentorship they have to the kids—and the other way around, too. It’s magical.”
Deanne Bryant leads her final piece with the Bloomington-Normal Youth Symphony at 7:30 p.m. Saturday with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra. Seats for “Holiday Pops in the Heartland” Saturday at the Illinois State University Center for Performing Arts are very limited. Tickets are $22-$64 at ilsymphony.org. The program also runs Friday in Springfield, with Jacobsen Woollen leading the Illinois Youth Symphony and a dance performance by the Springfield Youth Performance Group.
