A celebration of sight and sound will greet audience members at the Wartburg Community Symphony concert on Saturday, Feb. 18.

The 2 p.m. performance in Neumann Auditorium will feature the premiere of “Messages from Everywhere,” composed by Jocelyn Hagen and featuring the Wartburg Choir and imaging by artist Isaac Gale. The song is based on a poem of the same name by Brian Newhouse.

“I first came across Jocelyn’s music while preparing for a conference in New York. I was mesmerized by her work ‘The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci,’ which was written for choir, orchestra and video projections,” said Rebecca Nederhiser, Wartburg Community Symphony conductor. “I knew I wanted to commission a piece for our 70^th anniversary that would speak to our past but look forward to the future. Since our first concert occurred at Christmas with Wartburg and with the Wartburg Choir, I felt Jocelyn’s work was ideal. She also shares the same last name as our founder Ernest Hagen, an ironic coincidence that I didn’t connect until we started the commission process. She is a truly gifted artist and human being, and I am thrilled to premiere this project.”

As the symphony celebrates its 70^th anniversary season, Nederhiser is intent on honoring the ensemble’s past while simultaneously ensuring its success in the years to come. Unlike traditional concert and art or video combos, the symphony will not use a click track to sync the work but has partnered with Scott Winters of Ion Concert Music to utilize a new syncing software that provides a more immersive multimedia performance.

“I love trying new things and pushing performers and audiences. I love a good challenge,” Hagen said of creating the music for this collaboration. “This is my first time working with surround sound in a composition, and it’s also the first time that artificial intelligence has been used to create video for an orchestra performance. That’s quite a feat. Not all groups are willing to push boundaries and try new things. The Wartburg Symphony Orchestra has welcomed me and these ideas with open arms.”

Nederhiser is excited for the community to get to experience something on the cutting edge of audio and visual experiences.

“People really just need to come out and experience this for themselves. It’s so hard to explain just how immersive it is and the layers in the work,” Nederhiser said.

In addition to “Messages,” the choir also will perform Hagen’s “Mother’s Song,” while the symphony presents works by Joseph Haydn and Ralph Vaughan Williams. A special performance of Ottorino Respighi’s “The Birds” will feature artwork from the winners of the Music Takes Flight competition hosted in conjunction with Wartburg’s Waldemar A. Schmidt Art Gallery.

Winning artists Danica Minard, Valerie Leedom and Meredith Ellingworth will join Nederhiser, Hagen and soloist Steve Sang Koh for a preconcert talk at 1 p.m. in Neumann Auditorium.

Tickets are $17 for adults and free for youth ages 18 and under and Wartburg College students.
For more information and to purchase tickets online, visit the WCS website at www.wartburg.edu/symphony. Tickets also will be available at the door.