International Festival of Arts & Ideas | Music | Arts & Culture | New Haven Symphony Orchestra | James Hillhouse High School
Top: Photo Courtesy of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. Bottom: Jayla Anderson Photo.
“House!” The rows of musicians shouted as they marched down College Street onto the New Haven Green. Drummers took the musical lead, filling the air with rapid beats as rows of flute, clarinet, and trumpet players led them forward. Members of the New Haven Police Department held traffic as families raced to keep up with the James Hillhouse High School Marching Band.
That sound came to College Street on a recent Saturday evening, as the International Festival of Arts & Ideas sprang to life with a Juneteenth festival, performance from the Hillhouse Marching Band and New Haven Symphony Orchestra (NHSO) concert with incoming Maestro Perry So. For hours, dozens of friends, families, and music lovers gathered for the event with a single goal: to celebrate New Haven.
As they kicked off the night beside Sprague Hall, members of the Hillhouse Marching band stood in uniform rows, primed for the familiar beat of Bill Withers' “Lovely Day.” When it hit, people poured out of the hall, making a beeline for the band. The set flowed nicely, ending each time with the command of the band's head leader, Joshua Smith.
Smith stood at the heart of the pack, playing along with his students as they played feel-good tunes like Kool & The Gang’s “Hollywood Swinging” and The Sugarhill Gang’s “Apache (Jump On It).” In his third year of leading the group, the Hillhouse Marching Band has fallen into a comfortable confidence with its playing. Every sound is rehearsed and every movement choreographed.
“We’ve done a number of performances with these songs so this was a walk in the park,” Smith said with a laugh.
As members of the Hillhouse Marching Band bowed and concluded their set, the crowd cheered, drawn to the Festival’s Alexander Clark Stage on the New Haven Green. There, people sat, walked, and ate as the Official Juneteenth Coalition of Greater New Haven, led by artist and dancer Hanan Hameen, played an interactive set.
Five musicians played on drums of their own, playing call-and-response tunes with the audience. As drumbeats floated over the grass, members of the NHSO sat on the stage, watching intently. The drums rang out, and they fed off of the Juneteenth Coalition energy, singing, dancing, and laughing along to the beat. In turn, Coalition members made a memorable exit, drumming and dancing as they made way for the NHSO main event.
Before the NHSO performance began, several elected officials, New Haven arts luminaries and city leaders also praised the festival for its soul-stirring work, fully on display through the opening collaboration. They included State Sen. Martin Looney, NHSO Board President Keith Churchwell, Arts & Ideas Board President Kevin Ewing, Yale School of Art Dean Kymberly Pinder, and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro.
“The arts are not a luxury, the arts are not a distraction,” DeLauro said as attendees cheered in agreement. “They give us meaning.”
And with that, Perry So joined the stage to conduct for the first time as the NHSO's new music director (Maestro Alasdair Neale completed his last season in May). With brass filling the air, the orchestra opened with one of the most recognizable overtures to modern ears: Alfred Newman’s 20th Century Fox Fanfare. As the orchestra set off, So conducted with vibrant energy, zipping his arms through the air and commanding the sea of instruments.
The ranks of the NHSO filled the entire Alexander Clark Stage, making it difficult to count or keep track of what section had the spotlight at any given time. As musicians flowed into Leonard Bernstein's "On the Town: 3. Times Square," sound seemed to come from every direction. So beamed, his hands gliding through the air. Violins near-whistled their approval back.French horns and drums joined in, and So guided musicians forward.
As the night went on, So displayed an array of styles through his conducting. Before conducting Reena Esmail’s “Testament from ‘Vishwas,’” he introduced the piece as a “collision of two worlds,” a meeting of India and New Haven. As a new musician joined the stage, accompanying the NHSO to play additional percussion, Esmail’s piece set off.
The piece had a quiet beginning and ensued into a multi-part odyssey. Violins and flutes soared over the space, with the occasional chime and bell in the mix. Drums conjured a world an ocean away. The score felt triumphant, with a steady rhythm of the Indian drumming. Audience members danced by the corners of the stage and felt the fluidity of the music.
The night continued with the same energy. The show displayed moments of collaboration, including pieces with the St. Luke's Steel Band, the Spanish Community of Wallingford Mariachi Band with Dancers, and even So, who stepped out of his conductor role to play a duet on the piano with the orchestra’s first-chair violinist, David Southorn.
The music of the night ranged from lively to composed; grave to theatrical; Caribbean to Classical. Through it all, So held the weight of the music in his hands. The audience, meanwhile, often felt like it was welcoming him back home, ready for his tenure with the symphony to begin.
Jayla Anderson is a recent graduate of Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School and an alum of the Youth Arts Journalism Initiative. She plans to attend Vassar College in the fall.