Shortly before Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968, he began the Poor People’s Campaign, which had a pronounced economic rather than strictly racial focus, taking aim at poverty across the United States as it affected not only African American but Native American, Latino, white and other communities unable to obtain adequate housing, food, health […]
Scott Faingold
Scott Faingold is a journalist, educator and musician. He has been director of student media at University of Illinois Springfield, founding editor of Activator magazine, a staff reporter for Illinois Times and co-host of Old School Bleep, a music-centered podcast.
Posted inMusic
Taichi Fukumura named new ISO conductor
Following an exciting 2023-2024 season which doubled as a fierce, seven-month contest to hire a new music director/conductor, the Illinois Symphony Orchestra has announced the winner: Maestro Taichi Fukumura. The selection process took an unexpected turn in April, when Naomi Woo withdrew from the competition to become music director of the National Youth Orchestra of […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
Eric Welch June 10, 1972–Feb. 19, 2023
It’s probably fair to say that Eric Welch never got over SOHO. A gregarious and unfailingly humorous presence at local music events for years, Eric founded the SOHO Music Festival, which ran every summer from 2004-2016. The festival was both a showcase for original musical acts from the area and a charity event, raising thousands […]
Posted inMusic
Illinois Symphony launches a new season
When Maestro Ken Lam announced in May 2022 that he would be leaving after five years as music director of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra to accept a prestigious job at the Juilliard School in China, the conductor’s timing was off. The news arrived too close to the start of the 2022-2023 concert season for the […]
Posted inMusic
Meet Maestro Taichi Fukumura, the first candidate, this weekend
Taichi Fukumura has strong ties to Illinois. The season’s first candidate, who will be conducting the concerts this Friday and Saturday in Springfield and Bloomington, spent much of his early career in Chicago. “I was there for seven years or eight years – I’ve lost count,” he said. He had initially moved to the Windy […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Beethoven and Brahms take the spotlight
Maestro Vince Lee stepped ably into the role of guest conductor for the Illinois Symphony Orchestra last Friday, Nov. 18, with an enjoyable and occasionally galvanizing concert at the UIS Performing Arts Center. Former ISO music director Ken Lam has departed for a position at the Juilliard School in China. Lee currently wields the baton […]
Posted inMusic
A well-rounded musical feast
What promises to be an exciting, transitional season for the Illinois Symphony Orchestra got underway Friday at the UIS Performing Arts Center with Maestro Rei Hotoda presiding over an exciting and ambitious evening of music, crowned by a towering performance from guest soloist Itamar Zorman. Hotoda is the first of several guest conductors this season, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Maestro bids farewell with a spirited night of American music
This past Saturday, the Illinois Symphony Orchestra performed a program entitled “American Journey” at the UIS Performing Arts Center. The concert was the finale of an enjoyable, if somewhat disappointingly attended, 2021-2022 season, as in-person performance was cautiously reinstated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This concert will also be the last conducted by […]
Posted inMusic
Tarantula attacks, Hades and Napoleon’s old violin
The Illinois Symphony Orchestra took to the Sangamon Auditorium stage on Saturday, Jan. 29, for “Incredibly Italian,” its first concert of 2022. The evening’s exciting and energetic program featured works by three notably non-Italian master composers – Mendelssohn, Schumann and Mozart – with the theme instead reflected in the content of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and […]
Posted inMusic
ISO raises the roof, Russian-style
The second concert of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra’s 2021-2022 season was held this past Saturday at the UIS Performing Arts Center and proved to be an exciting evening of contrasting moods and surprising choices, including renditions of major works by two very different Russian masters and the debut of a new piece by a contemporary […]
Posted inMusic
ISO is back…and beautiful
The Illinois Symphony Orchestra made its triumphant return to the UIS Performing Arts Center stage this past Saturday, for the first time since February of 2020. Of course, the remaining two concerts of that seemingly long-ago season were canceled – along with pretty much everything else in the known world – due to the COVID-19 […]
Posted inMusic
Symphony embraces technology
“Previous to the pandemic, things had been looking good and positive,” said Illinois Symphony Orchestra executive director Trevor Orthmann, during a phone conversation last week. “We had great concerts up until February – the season was going well.” Suddenly the ISO was faced with having to cancel 2020’s final two performances – and all other […]
