Wartburg Community Symphony_Final-Black

 2024-2025 Season: Where the Magic Happens 

ORDER TICKETS: Available online with a credit card or at the door with cash, check, or credit card.

ALL TICKETS are General Admission Seating. The Symphony Association reserves the right to
block off seats that may be needed for special guests or production equipment.

Saturday, Oct. 12, 7 p.m. 
American Soundscapes
Inspired by the spirit of the new world, American Soundscapes will take you on a journey from the lyrical melodies of Dvorak’s cello concerto (Ruth Marshall) to Copland’s poignant Lincoln Portrait, and finally to Carlos Simon’s The Block, a portrayal of New York City.
Adults: $20 | K-12 Youth/Wartburg Students: Free at the Door

Saturday, Dec. 14, 2 p.m. 
Nutcracker Reimagined

Ever wonder what would happen if the Sugar Plum Fairy went to Harlem? Find out in December, when the symphony pairs Tchaikovsky’s perennial holiday favorite with Duke Ellington’s The Nutcracker Suite, with projections from illustrator Don Tate. Special performers will also include the Iowa Bop Collective. Click here to order your copy of Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite book illustrated by Don Tate. He will be available before and after the concert for autographs.
Adults: $20 | K-12 Youth/Wartburg Students: Free at the Door

Saturday, Feb. 15, 2 p.m. 
East Meets West
Join us as we celebrate cultural harmony with pipa soloist, Gao Hong. You will be enthralled by the art of Chinese storytelling and delighted by Western fairy tales depicted in Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite. Don’t miss this unique opportunity.
Adults: $20 | K-12 Youth/Wartburg Students: Free at the Door

Saturday, April 5, 7 p.m.
Star Gazing
Look up and lose yourself in faraway worlds. Our journey through the season ends with works from Interstellar, Star Wars, and The Planets. It will be an otherworldly experience.
Adults: $20 | K-12 Youth/Wartburg Students: Free at the Door

 Special Collaborative Concert in Cedar Falls

Saturday, March 29, 7 p.m. 
Light and Sound

As epic as orchestra concerts get! A theatrical lighting scheme will underscore this bigger than life performance as Waterloo Cedar Falls Symphony joins onstage with the Wartburg Community Symphony for an impressive side-by-side collaboration. Together we perform irresistible American music by John Adams and Erich Korngold at the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. Tickets are available at www.wcfsymphony.org.

wcfsymphony and the Wartburg Community Symphony present Light and Sound: March 29, 2025, at 7 p.m.

SUPPORT THE SYMPHONY

Click on options below to see details.

SUPPORT THE SYMPHONY!

For over 70 years the symphony has enriched the cultural life of Waverly and the Cedar Valley. Your donation helps us offer innovative programs, feature outstanding soloists, and nurture student musicians through scholarships and performances. All donations are tax-deductible with acknowledgment in our concert programs, signage in the Neumann Auditorium Lobby and screen projection in the auditorium prior to concerts and during intermission.

Donation Levels

  • STANDING OVATION $5,000-$10,000
  • GOLD BATON $1,000-$4,999
  • MAESTRO $500-$999
  • VIRTUOSO $250-$499
  • PRODIGY $100-$249
  • PATRON $50-$99

Business sponsorships help the symphony offer innovative programs including summer camps, feature outstanding soloists, and even provide scholarships for talented musicians from across the nation to come to our city and fulfill their educational aspirations.

Sponsorship levels remain the same, but in addition to your business ad being run in every concert program this season, we will continue to visibly acknowledge our sponsors with signage in the Neumann Auditorium lobby and screen projections in the auditorium prior to concerts and during intermission.

If you are interested in exploring additional business sponsorship opportunities, like sponsoring one of this year’s concerts or a guest artist or have questions about business sponsorship, contact Kim Folkers at kimberly.folkers@wartburg.edu.

Business Sponsorship Levels & Benefits

  • $1,000 (full page ad)
  • $500 (1/2 page ad)
  • $250 (business card ad)
  • Other Donation (no ad included)
Ad Sizes for Symphony: Full: 8x5 vertical; Half: 4x5 horizontal; Bus Card: 2x3 horizontal

Online payment:  Click on the yellow button below to make an online sponsorship.

By check: Download the sponsorship form, make your check payable to the Wartburg Community Symphony Association, and mail to:

Wartburg Community Symphony Association
PO Box 3
Waverly, IA 50677

Payment due: Whether contributing by mail or online, please email a digital copy of your advertisement (JPG, PNG, or PDF) to Kim Folkers at kimberly.folkers@wartburg.edu at your earliest convenience but not later than Sept. 15, so it can be included in all four concert programs. 

The Alan and Patricia Hagen Legacy of Music Scholarship (HLMS) Endowment
This scholarship was established in July 2022 through generous gifting from friends of the Hagen family, friends of the Wartburg Community Symphony and John and Lori Hagen. It will be awarded to an incoming or continuing Wartburg College student studying an orchestral string instrument, and is based on the student’s playing level and orchestra need.

The Enduring Legacy of the Hagens
Alan and Patricia Hagen shared a dedication to music that continues to enrich Waverly and countless other communities through their students, who have become professional musicians, church and community musicians and avid supporters of music.  Alan was a widely recognized choral director at Waverly-Shell Rock High School. Patricia was an accompanist and taught private vocal and piano lessons to generations of budding musicians.  The Hagens took many high school choirs to Europe and earned the top Prize of Vienna at a competition in Austria.

During Winter Term 2007 Alan served as Interim Wartburg Choir director.  Patricia served as an adjunct piano and voice instructor at Wartburg College at various times from the 1970’s until 2000.  Alan was presented the Robert McGowen Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Iowa Choral Directors Association. Fittingly, Alan and Patricia were honored with joint Certificates of Appreciation in Recognition of Outstanding Contributions to Choral Music Education from Wartburg and Luther College.  They also served at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Waverly, Patricia as organist and music director and Alan as senior choir and bell choir director.  In retirement Alan directed the Wartburg Artist Series and Patricia served as a pianist for the Bartels Lutheran Retirement Community.

Hagens

The Brent Jensen Memorial Scholarship (BJMS) Endowment
The Brent Jensen Memorial Scholarship was established in 2018 through an estate gift from Grant and Nancy Jensen, Brent’s brother and sister-in-law. It is awarded annually to a Wartburg College student studying an orchestral string instrument, and is based on playing level and orchestra need.

“Brent loved the symphony and was a longtime member. When he passed, there were significant memorials to the symphony association in his honor because people knew how he felt about our organization,” said Jon Tehven, symphony association president at the time. “He loved the arts: music, literature, prints and paintings, as well as small, unique wooden objects. He was always at the Wartburg symphony, drum and bugle corps competitions and musical events in Waverly.”

He was not only an inspiration to others, but he was a caring friend to many.  His support of local musical events was a continuation of his enjoyment of playing trombone in high school.

The scholarship established in memory of Brent Jensen is a fitting tribute to a well-loved community member and patron of the arts.

Brent Jensen

The Wartburg Community Symphony Association (WCSA) Scholarship Endowment
The WCSA Scholarship Endowment was established in September 2012 through generous gifting from members of the symphony and other supporters in the community, as the first fund supporting scholarships for music students. Three scholarships are awarded annually to Wartburg College students studying an orchestral string instrument. Recipients are awarded based on playing level and orchestra need.

The passion that marks the Wartburg Community Symphony flows from its conductors. Those eight talented musicians have molded a music organization whose future is bright.

Birth
The Wartburg Community Symphony began, because a new Wartburg professor, 38-year-old Ernest Hagen, wanted a symphony to conduct. Passionately. After all, he had studied conducting in Berlin under the conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. He directed a 60-man army chorus and played in the army band, whose performances were recorded and broadcast. His Sumner (Iowa) High School vocal and instrumental groups earned first division ratings at state contests.

Hagen conducting Symphony

In the Fall of 1952, having completed a master’s degree at the University  of Iowa, Hagen joined the Wartburg College faculty and brought his young family to Waverly. Soon after he arrived, the “finest thing that has ever happened to Wartburg’s music department” was announced—accreditation by the National Association of Schools of Music. However, there was no orchestra. So Hagen began recruiting players. “He recruited tirelessly,” said Carla Larson, long-time symphony supporter and wife of tenor Dr. C. Robert Larson, who joined the faculty the same year as Hagen. “He fervently visited area towns and communities and got together quite a respectable group.

”The symphony appeared first as a chamber orchestra in the 1952 Christmas at Wartburg performance. Accepted into the American Symphony Orchestra League, the orchestra played its first concert in Knights Gym Sunday evening, May 24, 1953. Musicians—16 college students and 38 community members—wore “a glittering array of formals and tuxedos.” They came from Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and 14 Iowa communities to play a program that included Bach, Grieg, and Schubert. The Waverly Chamber of Commerce presented a certificate of merit to the orchestra during intermission, and more than 500 people applauded enthusiastically.

Hagen moved on in 1959, becoming director of the Casper (Wyoming) Civic Symphony, organizing the Casper Youth Symphony and founding the Jackson Hole Fine Arts Festival (now the Grand Teton Music Festival) and several festival orchestras. Tragedy struck in 1973. Hagen lost his eyesight as he was composing an opera based on the novel “Giants in the Earth.” With the aid of special magnification devices, Hagen orchestrated the opera, which has been performed in concert version but awaits a fully-staged performance. Hagen died in 2000.

Development
Nine passionate conductors followed Hagen.

Dr. Robert E. Lee (1959-64) smiled when he recalled taking the podium for the first time. The program was ambitious, perhaps too ambitious, with a Beethoven concerto, a Shostakovich prelude, and a Bizet symphony. Lee didn’t know it was one of the first complete symphonies the orchestra had performed. During the second movement, he called out rehearsal letters to get everyone on the same page.“…I didn’t know the orchestral repertoire that well,” said Lee, whose background was band. “We made it through that first concert and continued to build the orchestra and play some nice things.”Before Lee left the podium, he arranged for Hagen to return to conduct a tenth anniversary concert of Grieg, Haydn, Mozart, and Vivaldi, on February 2, 1964.

Dr. Franklin Williams (1965-79, 82-84) faced conducting challenges with insight.“My first shock was that we barely had enough strings to make a quartet at rehearsal. But musicians would come from all over to play on Sunday, so we’d have a rehearsal before we played the concert. I always said it was coronary time for me.”His first concert featured Rossini; the second, Shostakovich in a strenuous, sometimes raucous piece.“I kinda’ went off the deep end. With small strings you can’t do the large romantic pieces because you can’t balance the winds and strings. I love Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach, but I wanted to do something different.”

Lathon Jernigan (1979-82, 85-87) drove from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls to conduct the orchestra. He led the musicians through challenging and rare pieces, including Bach’s “Concerto for Four Harpsichords.”“It was tricky finding four harpsichordists,” Jernigan said, “but we had two from Wartburg and two from the University of Northern Iowa. The community really seemed to appreciate those programs.”

John Bentley (1964-65) and Walter Temme (1984-85) each served one year as conductor.

Dr. Janice Wade (1987-2011) founded and conducted the Des Moines Community Orchestra and served as concertmaster of the Bijou Players, a silent-film touring group before arriving in Waverly. She created memorable Wartburg Community Symphony concerts using the silent film of “Phantom of the Opera” and films starring Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino. Another concert performed Holst’s “The Planets” to a 3D video of NASA planet photos. Using professional and semiprofessional musicians, Wade strengthened the quality of the Wartburg Community Symphony and arranged two cruise bookings.

Dr. Daniel Kaplunas (2011-2015) formed the Wartburg Chamber Orchestra as an avenue for students to perform and grow as musicians. He inspired students as musicians and composers. Audience numbers increased as Kaplunas drew local artists and music groups into concert programs. At his suggestion, the board established a Wartburg Community Association Endowment Fund to ensure the symphony’s future.

Dr. Jacob Tews (2015-2019) increased exposure for the chamber orchestra with a new name, “Kammerstreicher” (German for chamber orchestra). He partnered the Kammerstreicher with the Castle Singers to tour both domestically and abroad. The symphony endowment quadrupled in size during Tews’ tenure. His concert programs often featured music by modern composers and his own compositions. 

Professor Samuel Stapleton (2019-2021) utilized innovative programming to guide the symphony through the COVID-19 pandemic. He artfully programmed chamber music to maintain regular performances and began using social media to promote the symphony.

Dr. Rebecca Nederhiser (2021-present) focuses on collaborative concerts featuring nationally known artists. Under her impressive leadership the symphony and Kammerstreicher doubled in size. She created the St. George String Quartet, which provides scholarships for the four top student string players and commissioned several works for the orchestra. The symphony will celebrate its 70th season under her baton.

Governance
The Wartburg Community Symphony Association’s mission has always been to provide symphonic music to the greater Waverly community and professional experience for music students. Association membership is open to all dues-paying individuals. The association’s board of directors consists of college and community members. Although the conductor/music director is responsible for musicians and music goals, directors are involved in things such as budget, development, event management, fundraising, membership, and publicity. This governance structure distinguishes the Wartburg Community Symphony from the college’s other music organizations.

70th anniversary celebrated in 2022-23

Our 70-Year Symphonic Legacy
The Wartburg Community Symphony traces its beginning to 1952, when Ernest Hagen, a young Wartburg College music professor, organized an orchestra comprised of community and college musicians. He recruited throughout the Waverly area, and conducted the group’s first performance as part of that year’s Christmas with Wartburg program. The WCS included 16 college students and 38 community members.

The orchestra founded by Ernest Hagen has given Waverly bragging rights for many years as the smallest American city hosting an orchestra belonging to the League of American Orchestras. Today, under the direction of Dr. Rebecca Nederhiser, the orchestra has reaffirmed its role in both the college and community, doubling in size and attracting an increased number of community and college musicians. 

As part of the 70th anniversary season, The Wartburg Community Symphony, in collaboration with the Wartburg Choir and ION concert media, debuted “Messages from Everywhere” by composer Jocelyn Hagen in February 2023. The work combines AI-generated art, poetry, and deep technological initiatives which provide a unique sensory experience for the viewer/listener.

Waverly, Iowa has proudly supported a semi-professional symphony orchestra for 70 years. Founded in 1952, the Wartburg Community Symphony is comprised of Wartburg College students and community and professional musicians. The Symphony performs orchestral favorites but also presents new and innovative music, garnering recognition for its state, national, and world premieres. All concerts are held in Neumann Auditorium on the Wartburg campus.

Postponed/Cancelled Concerts
In the event that weather or other situations require a concert to be postponed or canceled, tickets will be honored at other symphony events. 

Rebecca Nederhiser

Assistant Professor of Music

A SPECIAL PARTNERSHIP

Wartburg students have the opportunity to play alongside professional musicians to create truly magical musical moments.

PROFESSIONAL MENTORSHIPS. EXPERIENCE MORE.