SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good afternoon, Bluffs Country. I'm Peggy Sweet, and this is Belonging in the Bluffs, brought to you by the Iowa West Foundation. I'm joined in studio once again with my good friend Danny Meyer. She is the Vice President of Artistic Administration at the Omaha Symphony. Welcome, Danny. Thank you so much for having me, Peggy. Absolutely. I love having you in the studio. You're such a ray of sunshine, and you've always got great music right behind you, and you know that is my favorite thing in the world.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Oh my gosh, I absolutely know that. And it is, you know, live music. We were just talking about this. The power of live music is that it's real people in front of you making the greatest art in the universe, and you can't beat that.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

No, you can't. And watching someone perform and put their heart and their soul into it, that just gives me goosebumps there too. It just makes me live it with them. I can't really play it, but I can live it with them.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

You know what? And we have some programs coming up that are just like the epitome of real people putting their heart and soul into things. And they're they're on completely opposite ends of the spectrum. But whether you are a huge fan of the human voice and the capability of three Texas men who just love to harmonize together, in all seriousness, the Texas tenors are coming back to Omaha. And if you love Phantom of the Opera, if you love Nessun Dorma by Buccini, if you love patriotic American favorites, these guys, I just, you know what? When we first heard them perform, I was just blown away by the absolute passion that they bring, each as individuals, but they have just perfected the art of coming to this as a team, as a real true trio of men who just like they love bringing this experience to people. They love singing this music. Every time they do it, it sounds like it's the first time they get to do it, and they're just so happy to be there. The experience is really like it's almost kind of overwhelming. Yeah. And how much passion they bring to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Oh, I can't imagine. I'm looking, I'm looking forward to that. It I've heard they are amazing, amazing. You just can't even put a word on them.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Like all things Texas, they are larger than life. Awesome. And and then literally on the complete opposite side, we have Mahler's Symphony number one to close out our classical series, our masterwork series, right? And Mahler was this composer early, early 20th century. But his in his view, the symphony had to contain the world. And so he's taking this legacy that Beethoven and Brahms and Mozart left him, and he's turning to early 20th century history, and he's looking around, it's like, how do I express the world? And he starts with his first symphony, The Titan. And I I swear, if you like being overwhelmed by live orchestral music, you could not do better than starting out with Mahler one because I think you're going to get everything. This symphony, Peggy, has everything. I know it has beautiful melodies, it has over-the-top, like rustic Viennese orchestration, it has a bass solo, so you know it's of course. Not biased at all. It has over-the-top brass playing, it has this gorgeous opening that's like, oh, it's like going through the dark woods and coming out into the light on the other end. And this was his very first symphony. So he's just getting into who he would become. And when you come hear the Omaha Symphony play these composers' first symphonies, it's like you're getting this glimpse into a completely new world that even the composer at the time didn't know they were setting up. It's such a meta experience, and you can do that at the Holland Center with us at the end of May.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Oh, amazing. And tickets are on sale at your website? OmahaSymphony.org. Okay, and you can get tickets for both shows there, right? That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Okay. There's also, yes, one more thing, um, which is actually a completely, again, opposite end of the spectrum. We're all over the place. You're you're Texas. We have both. Um, if you have ever wondered how the orchestra works, if you have ever, like, man, I would I wish there was like a smaller concert where I could come and I could speak to the maestro and ask all the questions. Yeah. So you can. Oh, how do I do that? On the on May 21st, if you come to KBO's Symphonic Connections with the Omaha Symphony, you can experience not only an awesome concert with my favorite people, which is the Omaha Symphony, but you can ask a question directly to our resident conductor and principal pop's conductor Ernest Richardson, who will be hosting this program alongside Jeff Katerba and having the orchestra play pieces that answer the questions the audience is and is asking in real time. You get this behind the scenes look at a concert. It's going to be comfortable, it's going to be casual, it's going to have Beethoven, so you know it's going to be good, and it features your Omaha symphony. So check, check, check.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

All the boxes. Wow. And do we need tickets for this then?

SPEAKER_01 4:51

There are tickets available. You can go through kvno.org for those.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Okay, perfect.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

It's it's the end of our season. I, you know, it's weird. We've done so much. It's been great to talk with you about all sorts of things over the over the course of the year, and I'm I'm kind of flabbergasted that it's already wrapping up. It's hard to believe that it just blink, time goes so fast. It really, really does.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

But there's good news.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

There's excellent news. The 26-27 season is right around the corner. Uh series tickets are available now, subscription. So if you want to like try out an entire series, I mean, I why wouldn't you? We have everything. Exactly. You do. But if you are waiting for single tickets to go on sale, don't worry, you don't have too long to wait. Those start on August 3rd. So check out what we have, kind of like pick and set things aside that you want to try, and uh we hope that you will give us a shot next year.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

And you're going to come back in a couple of months, and we're gonna go over your whole next season. That's exactly right. Right? So if you weren't convinced to get tickets today for next season, we're gonna convince you then. I will give you a hamburger today for no.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Come come you know what? If you're not ready to give the Omaha Symphony a shot right now, then absolutely check us out and consider giving us a shot tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Absolutely. Yeah, and um your website has all this information at OmahaSymphony.org. This is an incredible symphony orchestra that we have access to right here in our community. There are communities that don't have this.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

We're really lucky. Every city deserves a great orchestra, and in turn, every great orchestra deserves a great city, a great city, and we are supremely lucky to have two right next to each other.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

I couldn't have said it better myself, Danny. I think that is perfect. Danny, thank you so much for stopping by. I always enjoy our visits, and I will see you soon.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Thank you so much for having me, Peggy.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

This has been Belonging in the Bluffs, brought to you by the Iowa West Foundation.