Louisville Orchestra is gearing up for
its first concert of the season classics.
Our Kentucky home will be held s
September at Iroquois Amphithear
and you can buy your tickets no.
Joining me More joining with more on this
big performance and what else the orchestra
has planned is conductor Teddy Abrams.
Teddy, it's always great to have you here.
A great day live, great to be h.
I am personally looking so forward to this
performance because Iroquois Amphitheater
is just a beautiful venue for sn
opener and you all have done this before.
We love Iroquois.
It's one of our homes.
We usually play at least one
concert there every single seas.
And this is actually how we're kicking
off the 2324 season with one ofe
greatest soloists from Kentucky,
Chris Thiele, who's going to be
performing a brand new concerto
that we actually Co commissioned
that he's written for him to si,
to play and to Storytell actualy
with the Louisville Orchestra.
So this is a really,
really big deal.
And I love how even with
your season openers, well,
it's been a year I think of just like
first let's try this, let's try that.
Even with the season opener,
you're think how can we,
how can we elevate,
how can we do something differeo
kind of bring music to this community?
Well, that's the little orchestra brand.
We're knowing not only around this community,
but now around the world for innovating,
for doing things that are increy
exciting, for doing things differently
and helping redefine what an
orchestra can be in this moment.
And orchestra is still one of te
great symbols of music making,
of togetherness, of community.
And in Louisville, we think that this
community deserves the very bes,
the most exciting,
and that's why people from around the
world are recognizing it that w.
And that means that Farsi's no,
we only have to do something.
It reflects not only the talent
of our orchestra,
but also the cultural assets of our state.
And we were thinking about what
kind of program should we put o,
because not only is this program
going to be performed at Iroquo,
it's something we're taking arod
to the rest of the state as parf
our Commonwealth touring progra.
We wanted to make sure that we
featured the orchestra in a reay
virtuosic and brilliant way.
And they are phenomenal.
They're sounding so good right ,
but also have a soloist like Ch,
who is the greatest living mandolin player,
maybe the greatest mandolin
player who's ever lived,
and he's from Kentucky.
We want to showcase again the culture,
the music from our state,
because it's really some of thet
important culture around the wo.
Everyone loves
it shaped other musicians lives.
It shapes like an entire industy
that it's great that you're
kind of tapping into that.
That's right. Celebrating that.
Right. That's exactly right.
Lost at some point that
we need to raise that up.
Yes. And it doesn't.
It seems like maybe sometimes we
don't always celebrate it enoug.
It's something that I really
feel that the entire country,
the entire world needs to see.
See when they think about Louisville,
when they think about Kentucky,
to remember that this is the
place that generated some of
the best loved cultural assets.
It's it's the place where a
bourbon and music is born.
There's a reason for that.
There's something about maybe it's the water,
just the the strength of our
community and our and the belief
and what we are able to produce.
But it's our job at the orchesto
constantly reaffirm and celebrate that.
And that's something that's a
little different than the way a
lot of people see orchestras.
They don't always see orchestras
is necessarily celebrating the
culture of their own community.
They're often thinking of it as something
that brings in culture from the outside.
Well, we believe that music is n
incredible mixture of all those things.
Yes,
we can play music from 400 years ago,
and we do that as well as
any orchestra in the world,
but we also can play music written for us
right now by musicians living right here.
And that's the beauty of that
interconnected kind of ecosyste.
It's all music that's being made for us.
And the orchestra is really they
place where you can see that diversity
of culture in just a single set.
And that's what we do at every
single show at the orchestra.
You mentioned you're taking this
on tour across the state part of
your Commonwealth tour where all
were you visit in the coming ye.
So we are so excited about thing
of your schedule going, Oh my.
Well, I'm trying to remember
because we've already
just done three weeks of tourinn
the last few months and we've been to
Eastern Kentucky, we toured Appalachia,
then we went all throughout Cenl
Kentucky and a few other extra places.
And then this tour we're going to be in
Henderson, we're going to be in Murray.
And so it's a huge schedule.
I mean, and then and I think it's in 24,
we're going to be all throughout
Central and Western Kentucky.
So this is a really intense schedule.
We wanted to make sure that the orchestra
visits every single part of Kentucky.
It's dozens and dozens of not oy
performances with the full orchestra,
but visits to schools, to libra,
to hospitals, community centers.
Because what we're trying to do
is take the language of music,
which is universal,
and then use it to build relationships
throughout our own state.
Sometimes people don't even
recognize the in Kentucky,
we have elements of fracturing.
There are people in Louisville that haven't
been out to the beauty of Appalachia,
that haven't visited Western Kentucky,
that don't know these
communities and vice versa.
And we think that to build
the strongest possible state,
one that that feels like we're all together,
we're solving our problems toge,
there's a sense of unity.
Language of music is the perfect Ave.
to do that.
And that's why we have this pro.
It's all about building relationships
between the different parts
of our state through music,
which we all love and we
all care about together.
I love to that you're
taking it to the people.
I mean, theaters are beautiful and grand,
but sometimes they can feel forl
and people maybe don't feel like, oh,
I don't want to go into a place like that.
I don't know. There's is it,
don't you feel like too,
like you're connecting with peoe
in a different way when you have
just these very everyday venues?
Oh, absolutely. I mean,
we've played in all kinds of places already.
Yeah. Well, we were everywhere m
in the middle of Mammoth Cave to
just outside the the City Hall n
Glasgow to a giant arena in Pikeville.
We were over there at the App Wireless Arena
to the high school and Harlan like that.
It doesn't really matter as lons
a community is excited to have .
We could adapt.
We'll play anywhere and we've ao
played an incredible theaters.
They there are beautiful theaters in Ashland,
KY and in in Prestonsville.
They just the the number of plas
that they actually have just the
most welcoming spirit and want to see
the orchestra come through and d
are just so excited about what c
can do is just mind boggling bee
it's in our blood here in Kentu.
So when you're not touring,
not perform because you perform
with other community groups
as well, then what else?
What else will the season hold
for you where people can see you
perform here in the Louisville ?
Well then we're going to be back
at our main venue at Whitney. I got to keep up with you. And
for the classic season,
we have a tremendous range of mc
that we're going to be presenti.
In fact, if you take a look at the season,
you'll see basically every
era of music represented.
So for our first performance,
again we've got Chris Theely,
the incredible mandolin player.
He's the the lead singer and
songwriter for the Punch Butterd
Nickel Creek incredible musicia.
After that we have a a piece of music that
I just want to draw everyone's attention to.
This is a little later in the sn
by John Adams called Harmonial .
And it's one of the great pieces of music
written in the last 50 years or.
And it's kind of rarely perform,
but it's something that everyboy
needs to attend because this pie
is absolutely mind boggling.
It's it's just this kind of fantasy that,
that uses every possible color
in the orchestra.
And again, it's something you'rt
going to see come around very frequently.
And it's the first time the
orchestra has played it,
so you have to be there for tha.
Mahler's Sixth Symphony,
which is one of the great
masterpieces of the entire orchestral
repertoire that's coming on lat.
Then we've got a program at the end of
the season that features 3 branw
world premieres by the composers that
are working for the Little Orchestra,
the Little Orchestra Creators C.
We're the only orchestra in the world that
has three fulltime pose is working for us.
So it's it's really an overwhelg
kind of presentation this year.
Oh, not to mention the movie Nosferatu.
Yeah, yeah.
You know,
that crazy absolutely,
really frightening vampire movie Nosferatu,
the silent movie.
We've commissioned a brand new e
to go with that to celebrate Halloween.
So there's just one thing after another
at the orchestra and what we wat
is for people to come to everyt.
We want them to come to the entire season.
So subscribe to the classic sean
because you'll really get the mt
incredible spread that represens
the all the music.
Well, thank you so much for givg
us a sneak peek at the whole se.
Thank you so much for coming by.
Thank you for having us. Listen
to you for the whole hour.
There's a lot. We really appreciate it.
We want to get people to that season opener.
If you can get there, it is September
the 16th at Iroquois Amphitheat.
For the full schedule, just hean
over to louisvilleorchestra.org.