Evansville Philharmonic celebrates 90th anniversary with opening night

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — Dedication. Joyful. A beautiful product. These are all words used to describe the Evansville Philharmonic now meeting a milestone.

"It's hard to believe we're 90. Not many orchestras are 90 years old. So, it goes to show the support and dedication of our musicians, our staff, our patrons. 90 is a big one for us," says Music Director Roger Kalia.

That's correct. Evansville Philharmonic has served our Tri-State for nine decades, and it calls for a party.

Patrons took their seats at the Victory Theatre for a concert to ring in the 90th anniversary.

Franz Schubert's Overture to Rosamunde plays at the beginning of the concert. It was also performed at the philharmonic's inaugural concert back in 1934.

That's among the themes for Saturday night: to celebrate the past and future ahead.

Many of our musicians have played with the orchestra 20, 30 years. It's my fifth year as music director, and I'm only the sixth music director in the 90 year history — which is very rare for an orchestra," Kalia says.

Kalia has been planning out this season for two years with other orchestra staff.

"We get input from the community, our musicians. Really, we want to make sure that Evansville has a symphony that they can look forward going to throughout the year," Kalia says.

Other concerts are in store on this 90th season. There's even on for our Tri-State Star Wars fans.

"Our first-ever — well, during my tenure — first-ever film with orchestra. Star Wars: A New Hope where the orchestra will play the full score, and they'll be a film — a screen above the orchestra with a film projected onto it," Kalia says.