TERRE HAUTE — Despite being among the poorest counties in Indiana, Vigo County is home to a symphony orchestra many believe holds its own with the best professional orchestras in the business.

“You can’t tell the difference” between the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra and practically any other professional symphony you’ll hear, said David Bowden, music director and conductor of the symphony since 1997. “The Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra is extraordinary.”

While perhaps among the city’s best-kept secrets, the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra is not new. Formed in 1926, it is the oldest continuously performing orchestra in the state.

“The Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra has a long and storied past,” Bowden said. “It has years and years of great success.”

Now the symphony is working hard to attract fresh audiences while keeping its loyal supporters. The task requires finding harmony between presenting rich, classical symphonies and more popular music with a bit of a flair and showmanship.

“It’s a balancing act,” Bowden said. “It’s a very difficult balancing act.”

Beethoven and the Jedi Knights

Finding creative ways to reach new audiences — especially kids — is a hallmark of the current symphony.

For example, on Sept. 26 during the Terre Haute Street Fair, Star Wars characters in full costume and armed with lightsabers will invite children and their families to listen to a lunchtime mini-concert inside Indiana State University’s Tilson Auditorium.

This is a “test experiment,” Bowden said of the family concert idea. Another family concert is planned for Halloween. Children will be invited to wear Halloween costumes to a 20-25 minute concert featuring some “funky” Halloween music, Bowden said.

Both family concerts will set the stage for bigger concerts Sept. 26 and on Halloween night. The September concert will have an outer-space theme and will feature music such as Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” “The Planets” by Gustav Holst and the theme from “Star Wars” by John Williams.

On Halloween, the costume-clad orchestra will perform music with a Halloween or slightly spooky flavor, such as Camille Saint-Saens’ “Danse Macabre,” “Symphonie fantastique” by Hector Berlioz and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera.”

“You don’t normally find that kind of programming at a symphony orchestra” performance, Bowden said. “I may put on a Batman mask” for the kids’ Halloween family concert, he added.

Volunteer roots

While the symphony is trying to show it knows how to have fun, there is also a serious, strongly artistic and professional side to this group of approximately 75 talented musicians.

“These are really very professional people,” said Anne Lynk, executive director of the symphony. All the musicians are paid for their rehearsals and performances and are members of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 25. Several come from cities outside Terre Haute, including Bloomington, Indianapolis and Linton, while others live in eastern Illinois and even much farther away. “They have spent their lives studying music,” Lynk said.

When it started, the Terre Haute Civic Orchestra — as it was known then — was a volunteer group of local musicians, many members of the musicians’ union. The Civic Orchestra’s first concert was in 1926 at the Indiana Theatre, according to a history of the symphony written by Richard Dowell and available on the orchestra’s Web site, www.thso.org.

Over the decades, the orchestra also performed at places such as the Shrine Temple, the Laboratory School, St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, the Hippodrome Theatre, the Terre Haute House and ISU’s Normal Hall. It now performs mostly at Tilson Auditorium. However, the orchestra also has performed free outdoor concerts at Fairbanks Park and will perform a free concert featuring Irish music at 4 p.m. Sept. 13 at St. Stephen’s Church on North Seventh Street.

Close ties to ISU

The Civic Orchestra, which changed its name to the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra in 1955, has always had a close relationship with Terre Haute’s largest university. Nearly half the orchestra’s original 48 members were Indiana State Normal School students while the rest were teachers at the school or local musicians. Only one of the original musicians was an “outsider” — a bassoonist from Chicago, according to Dowell’s history.

The orchestra has had six conductors over the years. When former Indiana State Teachers College music teacher James Barnes directed the orchestra from 1949 to 1970, ISU faculty were expected to play with the symphony, said David Watkins, a 40-year member of the orchestra and retired ISU faculty member.

For many decades, the symphony provided “a wonderful chance for [ISU] teachers to continue to perform,” he said. “It was very much a college community orchestra.”

More recently, the symphony has somewhat left its local “community” orchestra roots and become much more professional, Watkins said. More and more of the musicians are now “outsiders,” many coming from Indiana University’s school of music or elsewhere.

“We draw from a big cross-section of the region,” Bowden said. However, a strong tie remains with ISU, which hosts the orchestra’s concerts, he added. Still, musicians from all over the area “like to come and play with us because we are so good.”

Back from the Brink

In the mid-1990s, the orchestra was nearly defunct, according to Watkins. The symphony’s board of directors was close to disbanding the orchestra due to lack of funding. That all changed, though, after the musicians and several faculty at ISU worked hard to help raise more than $150,000 to save the symphony, he said.

Now, the symphony is “flourishing,” Bowden said. Its $256,000 budget for the 2009-10 season will be funded by ticket sales, individual donations and business sponsorships, Lynk said.

“We are very grateful to the people who have supported us over the years,” Bowden said. “Our audience is growing. Our sponsorship is growing.”

Many local businesses recognize the value of the symphony, said Bob Brown, a former symphony board president and president and CEO of Tri Aerospace in Terre Haute. Having a top-quality symphony makes the city more attractive for professionals and businesses, he said.

“The quality of what we have here is really extremely good,” Brown said. When he brings professional job candidates to Terre Haute, many want to know about the fine arts in the area, he said. “They are extremely impressed when they learn we offer a top-quality symphony orchestra,” Brown said. “It is a total gem to have something like that in a city this size.”

Unexpected snow

Bowden and others are working diligently to keep the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra alive and well during difficult economic times. Free family concerts and other events to attract young people and new audiences is a big part of the current push. Bowden, who has won several awards for concert programming innovation, is serious about trying to keep the symphony’s loyal ticketholders while finding creative ways to expand their ranks.

“For a lot of kids, [attending a symphony] is a transforming experience,” said Bev Cristee, a longtime season ticketholder and supporter of the symphony. More than 3,000 Wabash Valley students attend free concerts each year, and orchestra members often enter schools to perform and talk about their music and their instruments, she said. “That’s an example of how dedicated [the musicians] are.” In addition to free performances for local schoolchildren, the symphony plans six concerts this season, including the popular Christmas concert.

While adding showmanship to the performances may help attract new audiences, it may not always sit well with the musicians. One Christmas, a former music director decided to have fake snow fall on the symphony while they played, Watkins recalled. “My tux had to be sent to the cleaners,” he said, smiling. Just breathing was difficult when your face became covered with artificial snow, he added.

And while the musicians often may wear formal clothing, it’s not required of the audience, Lynk noted. Some patrons wear formal clothing, others come in jeans, she said. “It’s music that can be enjoyed by anyone.”

Ticket prices are $15 to $35 for most concerts, and the orchestra resists raising the price, Bowden said. “Our ticket prices are a bargain,” he said. “We want to keep it accessible and affordable.” Most concerts last between 90 minutes and two hours, Lynk said.

Season and single-performance tickets are available at the Hulman Center box office or at the door. Season tickets also can be purchased by calling (812) 237-3737.

Symphonies are closing all around the country, Cristee said. And “it’s been very hard” to maintain the orchestra in Terre Haute. Still, the dedicated musicians, local organizations, businesses and season ticketholders continue to keep the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra in business.

“A city that embraces the arts, particularly a symphony, is a vibrant city,” Cristee said. “I can’t imagine what it would be like without the symphony in Terre Haute.”



Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.