SIOUX CITY | The Sioux City Symphony Orchestra is celebrating a century of making music.
While it’s natural to look back over 100 years of history, it’s essential to look ahead and invest in the future of live performance in Sioux City. And it’s something understood by the man at the podium.
Ryan Haskins, the sixth music director and conductor of the symphony, is continually pushing the limits to make every evening an experience while placing an emphasis on education and communication with the public whether it’s entertaining 2,400 sixth graders or playing to loyal patrons.
This symphony is moving forward, determined to remain a vital part of cultural life in Sioux City.
More than 70 musicians belong to the professional orchestra that traces its roots to a 30-piece ensemble at Morningside College. The first public performance was held on Feb. 27, 1916.
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Leo Kucinski, a violinist from Poland, became the conductor in 1925 and held the baton for 52 years. During his tenure, Kucinski’s name became synonymous with the symphony, and the orchestra grew to include musicians from miles away and attracted famous guest artists like Van Cliburn, Benny Goodman and Meredith Wilson.
Under the direction of Haskins, the cultural institution has been blurring the line between classical and contemporary music, broadening community outreach programs and using innovative approaches to enhance the concert-going experience.
These efforts are epitomized in the centennial season, which included unique concerts like “A Night at the Museum” featuring instruments from the National Music Museum’s collection and “Ballroom with a Twist” featuring professionals from “Dancing with the Stars” as well as finalists from “So You Think You Can Dance” and “American Idol.”
“This season is groundbreaking on every level. We’re trying new concepts, new ideas that have never been tried before,” Haskins said. “The experience is what people know and love and need.
"We’re just sort of tweaking things around so that it’s not this stuffy little place, where people come and fall asleep. It’s that interactive place, that important place, where people can come, sit and experience and go away changed – and that’s the most important part of any live performance that we have.”
The seven concert schedule ends with a special encore event on May 14, called “Collide,” where the audience will listen to Tchaikovsky’s beloved Violin Concerto before entering an immersive post-classical show featuring Mercury Soul with Composer/DJ Mason Bates in a specially created club environment outside the Orpheum Theatre. The crowd will experience a collision of electronic dance music and classical that has packed clubs around the country.
While the local ensemble celebrates its centennial, other symphony orchestras across the country in metros much larger than Sioux City have gone silent amid tough economic times, rising costs and aging audiences.
In 2011, the Philadelphia Orchestra became the first major orchestra in the United States to file for bankruptcy. Even the New York Philharmonic, the nation’s oldest symphony orchestra and one of the wealthiest, faces significant economic challenges. The cultural institution, founded in 1842, has been running an annual deficit for the last decade.
Yet, the Sioux City Symphony plays on, bringing music to schools and hospitals, enriching the lives of audiences young and old -- and the members in it.
