Lexington Philharmonic season: ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Harry Potter,’ Valentines Day concert & more

Rich Copley
·4 min read

As the Lexington Philharmonic’s Oboe Duo finished its first set for the orchestra’s Symphonic Stroll event at Josephine Sculpture Park, Music Director Mélisse Brunet joined the audience in giving the musicians a hearty round of applause, and then she hustled up to the makeshift stage.

Watching from the crowd, she noticed the stage was angled so that it only faced a slice of the audience, and after apprising oboists Bonnie Farr and David Powell of the situation, she joined them and Interim Executive Director Brooke Raby in moving chairs and music stands off the stage to rotate it a few degrees toward more fans.

Brunet’s servant leadership in the park, where she served as the musicians’ chief cheerleader, introducing five ensembles scattered around the park and joining fans in playing musical games and other activities, underscored her desire to get to work as her second season wielding the baton for the Lexington Philharmonic begins.

“I feel like I know the place a lot more, and I have a better sense of what’s happening and the people, and we are in a groove,” Brunet said of her second season, which gets started in earnest Friday night with a concert at the University of Kentucky’s Singletary Center for the Arts that shows the conductor and director’s broad vision for the orchestra.

The familiar piece on the program, Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” will be a town-and-gown spectacle featuring the combined choirs of the Lexington Singers and University of Kentucky with UK soloists Jessica Bayne, Dylon Crain, and Christopher Burchett. It will begin with a key component of Brunet’s vision for the orchestra in two works by this year’s Composer-in-Residence Shawn E. Okpebholo, a Grammy-nominated and award-winning composer born and raised in Lexington.

“Shawn was born here. He discovered music and loved music through our town of Lexington, and he’s become that major composer, not only in the US, but worldwide,” Brunet said. “And this is very unique that we can afford to have him as a composer-in-residence for a world premiere. Very exciting.”

Lexington Philharmonic Music Director Mélisse Brunet talks with Director of Artistic Operations Sarah Thrall at Symphonic Stroll. “You will meet a lot of people in the street telling you, ‘Yeah, I’m not into classical music.’ But actually, you are into classical music because you go back home, play video games, watch a movie, and this is classical music, and you love it,” Brunet said.

Lexington Philharmonic 2023-24 season highlights

The world premiere will be May 18 with “Two Black Churches for Orchestra,” which Brunet says is attracting attention from orchestras and music events around the world.

But before that finale, the Philharmonic will stage a season like none other for the orchestra including:

  • A Nov. 18 concert devoted to the movie music of John Williams including “Star Wars,” “Jurassic Park,” “Harry Potter,” and more.

  • A Valentines Day concert at the Lexington Opera House featuring the music of the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin.

  • Music by numerous modern, female composers, including Jennifer Higdon and Clarice Assad March 9, and Mary Watkins, whose “Soul of Remembrance” will be paired with “Two Black Churches” in May.

“You will meet a lot of people in the street telling you, ‘Yeah, I’m not into classical music.’ But actually, you are into classical music because you go back home, play video games, watch a movie, and this is classical music, and you love it,” Brunet said. “And you know, it’s amazing, because that’s the only medium nowadays that reaches billions of people.

“You can go on any continent in the world, everybody will have heard the music of ‘Harry Potter,’ probably or “Star Wars,” which is not going to be the case probably for Mozart, quite yet. But they reach out to different audiences and bring them to that music that we love so much.”

Brunet scoffs at the notion of the movie music and Aretha Franklin concerts being light music.

“This music is hard, very hard to compose,” she said. “Aretha Franklin is beautiful music, and all of those pieces are just written by different human beings at different stages of their lives, who wanted to express different emotions, but through the same means, that is music. And I don’t like to put categories and say, this music is more important than this music. Everything is important. Everything is beautiful.

“We need to be relevant in our community and bring music for everybody, and for people who think I only like ‘Carmina Burana,’ maybe if they come to John Williams, maybe it’s going to be, ‘I like that too.’ We are here to help people discover other genres and styles.”

While Brunet was on the podium for last season, this is the first season she has programmed. While she is excited to bring this music to Lexington, she says the season is about more than one person.

“Hopefully, it’s not too much about me, but it’s more about them about them: our city, about our orchestra, about our organization. And what we focused on was really what do we want to bring to the people, and what do we think they will want to discover or what they don’t know they will like, but they will like it.”

Lexington Philharmonic: ‘Visions & Voices’

When: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 20

Where: Singletary Center for the Arts Concert Hall, 405 Rose St.

Tickets: $28-$78 adults, $11 students and ages 17 and younger

More: Visit lexphil.org or call 859-233-4226 for tickets and more information about this concert and the Philharmonic’s 2023-24 season.