The Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra is comprised of School of Music faculty members, hired professional musicians and students who successfully audition for the School of Music. The Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra generally performs three concerts per semester including Masterworks and Chamber Music series concerts, Labor Day Pops and collaborations with the Millikin Opera Theatre and the School of Theatre and Dance. Membership in the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra places a high demand on students gaining hands-on experience playing alongside School of Music faculty and other professional musicians. For more information, visit https://symphonyguildofdecatur.org/.
Orchestra
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About
2025–2026 Season
Labor Day Pops
Dr. Neal Smith, guest conductor
Monday, September 1, 2025 6:00 p.m. | The Devon Lakeshore Amphitheater
Labor Day Pops marks the official start of the School of Music’s concert season with a family-friendly event at the Devon Lakeshore Amphitheater. Join us for an exciting evening of music from the theater stage, movies, and patriotic favorites.
Masterworks I: Apotheosis of the Dance
David Cook, clarinet
Saturday, October 11, 2025 7:30 p.m. | Kirkland Fine Arts Center
The first of three finalists for the MDSO’s music director position joins soloist David Cook for a dance-inspired program featuring Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances, Weber’s second clarinet concerto, and Beethoven’s venerable Symphony No. 7. Dancing in the aisles encouraged!
Masterworks II: Symphonic Colors
Isidora Nojkovic, cello
Saturday, November 8, 2025 7:30 p.m. | Kirkland Fine Arts Center
The second finalist for the MDSO’s music director position joins soloist Isidora Nojkovic for a concert exploring a rich tapestry of orchestral colors. Program includes works by Edward Elgar, Bedřich Smetana, and Dmitri Shostakovich.
Masterworks III: A Mosaic from Heaven and Young Artists
Saturday, February 7, 2026 7:30 p.m. | Kirkland Fine Arts Center
The third finalist for the MDSO’s music director position leads a concert showcasing one of the pillars in 20th-century symphonic repertoire in Sibelius’s innovative Symphony No. 5 alongside the student winners of the School of Music’s annual Concerto/Aria Competition. Hear some of the best and brightest from the School of Music and witness the conclusion of the search for the next MDSO music director!
Masterworks IV: A German Requiem
Dr. Benjamin Hawkinson, guest conductor
Tickets: $25, $30, $35
Saturday, April 11, 2026 7:30 p.m. | Kirkland Fine Arts Center
Ben Hawkinson leads the MDSO’s season finale in a choral/orchestra performance featuring the combined Millikin choirs and Opus 24. This epic, seven-movement, “requiem for the people” remains one of Brahms’s most beloved works amid his widely varied output
Mainstage Opera: Cinderella
Millikin Opera Theater
Libretto & Music by Pauline Viardot
English Translation by Rachel M. Harris
Aubrey Hawkinson, Director
John Massaro, Guest Conductor
Friday, May 1, 2026 7:30 p.m. | Virginia Rogers Theatre (Center for Theatre and Dance)
Saturday, May 2, 2026 7:30 p.m. | Virginia Rogers Theatre (CTD)
Sunday, May 3, 2026 2:00 p.m. | Virginia Rogers Theatre (CTD)
This charming French salon opera from 1904 originally boasted prolific operatic mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot as both its composer and librettist. Experience a Cinderella tale like you’ve never seen before with the revitalized English translation sure to appeal to a wide audience of musical theatre and opera lovers alike. Co-produced by the School of Theatre & Dance, School of Music, and Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra.
Watch and Listen
May 3, 2025: a Dvorak Celebration
February 22, 2025: For the Young and Young at Heart!Audition Information
Membership in the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra is open to all students playing string and orchestral woodwind, brass and percussion instruments via audition, regardless of major. Students playing orchestral woodwind, brass and percussion instruments must be recommended by their applied instructor after completing an audition.
For the 2025–2026 season, auditions will take place on Sunday, August 24 from 4–5 p.m. in KFAC Room 136. Auditions consist of prepared excerpts and sight reading.