All it took was a simple email to spark excitement at SHS.

Alyssa Brooks, the Director of Orchestra Operations of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO) sent an email to SHS orchestra director Thomas Wright informing him that the esteemed ISO was scheduled to perform a community concert inside the school’s walls. The orchestra students’ excitement was palpable, and rumors about this much-anticipated performance echoed throughout the hallways.

“It’s just a great opportunity,” Wright said. “The highest level of our sport … is reaching out to us and saying, ‘Hey let us come and play up close for you.’”

The ISO has been around for nearly a century and is the world’s largest performing arts organization, offering cutting-edge programming and symphonic music at the highest artistic level.
As a kickoff into their 2023-2024 season, the ISO wanted to plan a community engagement concert and hold it at various schools around town. When reaching out to different people and locations, they came across SHS.

“A big part of (our mission) is to educate and inspire,” Brooks said. “We want to inspire younger audiences and I think this is a perfect way to do that.”
After an exchange of emails, the ISO is planning to host a concert at SHS on Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. The concert will run approximately 40 minutes long and will have free entry for all attendees.

“I think it’s really important to offer free concerts that are easily accessible for people to go to,” Brooks said. “Not everyone necessarily wants to come downtown, so we’d like to

come to them when we can.”

Kevin Lin, a concertmaster at ISO, will be performing a solo piece at the event. Lin wants to inspire students to pursue their dreams as he did and make a career out of it.

“I hope, as a representative of the Asian population, that I will be able to show people that no matter your skin color, who you are, what you believe in that you can, if you really enjoy classical music, you can really make a career out of it,” Lin said.

Aside from the show, some of the performers have agreed to stay after the concert and answer questions and interact with students. The ISO stage crew has also offered the Technical Theater students to shadow them and ask questions while they’re setting up for the show.

Senior Sophia Richason has been involved with orchestra since she was in sixth grade. She is considering going into music in college due to her passion for it.

“My interests in music have expanded because of (orchestra class),” Richason said. “I found lots of good opportunities and experiences.”
According to Richason, she was thrilled when she learned that the ISO will be performing at SHS. With the given opportunity to see professionals first hand, she is excited to learn a lot from them.

“It would be really nice to see the professional etiquette up close and see the technique a little bit closer,” Richason said. “I’m excited to see that and how it differs from our orchestra.”
She hopes that by attending this event, it will inspire not just herself but also others to keep doing what they love and even inspire them to try and land a position in the ISO.

“I hope that everyone goes and maybe if they’re thinking about quitting orchestra, I hope that this will change their mind,” Richason said.

Junior Andrea Perez-Xique was just as excited to learn that the ISO will be performing at SHS as she had been when she first saw them. She hopes that seeing them in person will motivate students, not only orchestra students, to take up a new hobby.

Perez-Xique, along with many other students, participates in a summer STEM program at the University of Indianapolis. During this program, students were able to attend one of the ISO’s concerts.
“It was very beautiful … one of the songs was one of my favorites that I love to hear and it made me cry,” Perez-Xique said.