Orchestra

students playing violin

  • 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.

     

    About

    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/.

     

    Admission 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.

    Click here for audition excerpts

     

    Watch and Listen

     
     May 3, 2025: a Dvorak Celebration

     
    February 22, 2025: For the Young and Young at Heart!