On Saturday September 28th Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra held its opening night concert. This Concert took place in Kirkland Fine Arts center where they played Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Weber, Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder featuring Millikin’s own Andrea Frakes Pope, and Strauss’s Rosenkavalier Suite.

The Hindemith piece was a complex, upbeat piece that originated as a project for a ballet. Each of the four movements emulates different composers. The Rosenkavalier Suite was a flowing piece that went easily between times of agitation to parts of sweet harmony.

The featured piece of the concert was Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder which showcased one of Millikin’s own graduates and professors, Andrea Frakes Pope. This set was a collection of five songs. Each was about the death of children and how parents can cope with such a loss. I got the privilege to speak to Professor Pope about her performance. Although this wasn’t her first time singing with an orchestra, this is her first appearance with an orchestra in thirteen years. With this particular piece, she studied it intensely for the past nine months. When it came to the music, she knew the challenge wasn’t going to be the actual notes so much as it was the translation. On the text, Pope said, “I had to go through and translate each word, and then try and make sense of it. It’s a very heavy subject and it’s hard to
wrap your mind around it.”

Needless to say, the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra celebrated a huge success with their first concert of the year. We look forward to what future concerts will hold.