The Idaho Falls Symphony let the audience pick the music for its upcoming performance
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IDAHO FALLS — To kick off its 69th season, the Idaho Falls Symphony decided to let you choose the music for its upcoming Symphony in the Park performance.
And the response was pretty successful.
“It’s a really wide mix of classical pieces,” Idaho Falls Symphony executive director Alekzandria Peugh told EastIdahoNews.com. “Like really big standard pieces that we’re just doing little snippets of but then we also have some pop tunes like a song from ‘Monsters Inc.’ and ‘The Sound of Music’ and things like that.”
Peugh said members of the community chose this year’s music through social media polls and submitting suggestions on the symphony’s website.
“There were great suggestions, and I think we have a concert that will appeal to the entire community,” Idaho Falls Symphony’s music direct Thomas Heuser said on the symphony’s website.
‘Symphony in the Park: Audience Choice!’ is free and open to everyone. It is being held on Sept. 8 at the Freeman Park Band Shelter. The concert starts at 5:30 p.m.
“We usually get around about 1,000 people and we anticipate about that (this year),” Peugh said.
A short history of the Idaho Falls Symphony
The Idaho Falls Symphony was founded in 1949 as a volunteer symphony.
“None of the players got paid and it was just community members who worked at the lab or who were doctors or teachers or something who also were musicians and wanted to come together and play orchestral music,” Peugh said.
Even after becoming a professional, paid symphony a good number of the symphony’s musicians volunteer their musical talents without taking a paycheck.
“We still have a lot of people in the orchestra who volunteer so when they get paid they donate their checks back to us because they are just here to play,” Peugh explained. “We do get a lot of people from the national lab and we have some people from the hospital. We have a really wide variety of kinds of people who come here.”