The Southern Illinois Music Festival will celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday with a three-week event from June 18 to July 4, featuring American classical music spanning four centuries. The festival will include five major orchestral programs, five patriotic pops concerts, and several chamber music performances at various locations in the region.
Organizers say the festival is designed to highlight American composers from Amy Beach and George Whitefield Chadwick to Leonard Bernstein and John Williams. Edward Benyas, SIFest artistic director, founder and conductor, said this year’s repertoire is an opportunity to introduce audiences to a tremendous range of music by American composers.
“The crux of the festival are five concerts at Carterville High School that will cover about 150 years of American Classical music, which major symphony orchestra and music festivals often neglect,” said Benyas, professor emeritus of oboe and conducting at SIU Carbondale and executive director of the Cascade Symphony in Edmonds, Washington. He said these concerts will feature works by both historical figures such as Charles Ives and Florence Price as well as living composers including John Adams and Mary Watkins.
Throughout the festival there will be instrumental selections from musicals like “Oklahoma!,” “Hamilton,” “South Pacific,” “West Side Story” and “A Chorus Line.” Each orchestral concert will also include excerpts from film scores by John Williams. A special pre-fireworks concert outside SIU Carbondale’s Banterra Center is scheduled for July 4.
This year’s programming received support through a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for performance rights related to non-public domain American classical pieces. Tickets are available for $25 general admission or $10 for students at venues before each performance; an all-festival pass costs $200 with additional benefits.
