The Illinois Symphony Orchestra has released programming for the 2025-2026 season, beginning with a familiar guest conductor sending the audience to a galaxy far, far away.
Vince Lee returns to temporarily taking the reins from Taichi Fukumura on Oct. 11at ISU's Center for Performing Arts for the season opener, conducting a medley of music from the Star Wars franchise. It's an unconventional start to the ISO's season, organized around Fukumura's new post as assistant conductor to the Cleveland Orchestra.
Fukumura will be back at the podium in November with Canadian violin soloist Blake Pouliot performing Rózsa Violin Concerto. Beethoven Symphony No. 3 “Eroica” and Bartók's Romanian Folk Dances complete the program.
This season also will feature a couple of holiday-themed concerts, with Holiday Pops in the Heartland returning Dec. 14, and a concert titled Love Notes around Valentine’s Day, featuring the married saxophone duo of Valentin Kovalev and Aiwen Zhang performing Carr's Concerto for Two Saxophones.
Two more romantically-themed pieces cap that program with Bernstein's Three Dance Episodes from On the Town, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5
Between the two seasonal events is a chamber concert Jan. 17 at Second Presbyterian Church in Bloomington, with the Springfield Choral Society joining ISO associate conductor Jacobsen Woollen for works by Chen Yi, Stravinsky and Mozart.
The final leg of the season will begin in March with a concert titled Visions and Vitality. Accompanying the orchestra will be vocalist Madison Leonard, best known for her time at the Seattle Opera.
A traditional concert called Simple Gifts, including Copland's Appalachian Spring, will be held in April, and the season will conclude with a concert aptly titled Fabulous “Finnish.”
The closing event will include a piece by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, and the stylings of the Gilmore Young Artist Award Winner Janice Carissa on the piano.
Season tickets are available in in July, with details available at ilsymphony.org.
