MSO’s Take Flight! concert brings world premiere to Wabash

The Manchester Symphony Orchestra will Take Flight! on Sunday, May 3, at the Eagles Theatre in Wabash.

As part of the MSO’s education outreach, admission is free for everyone 18 and younger, as well as all college and university students and Manchester University employees with ID. General admission tickets are $20 at www.manchestersymphonyorchestra.org/tickets or at the door.

Beginning at 3 P.M., the concert features the world premiere of “The Flock,” a double concerto by Jacob Warren and Grant Flick that features the dynamic duo with Jacob on upright bass and Grant on nyckelharpa (a Swedish folk instrument), classical guitar, and violin.

“This piece is hot off the press,” said MSO Conductor and Artistic Director Debra Lynn. “We just received the score and parts in March.”

“Premiering a new work requires a different mindset than preparing the ensemble to play an orchestral ‘classic,’” she said. “For one thing, there are no recorded references. If we perform a Mozart symphony or a Beethoven concerto, I have a myriad of recorded performances to consult for interpretive elements such as tempo, articulation, and expressive nuance. With a premiere, we are creating the definitive performance against which other symphonies will measure themselves in the future. So, it’s a big responsibility guided only by the notes on the page.”

“I love performing new works, especially when I know the composers personally,” she said. “It’s been really fun working with Jacob and Grant while they created this concerto. It is a very exciting and unique piece of symphonic music, and I’m thrilled to present it here in Wabash County, where Warren & Flick have built a sizable following in recent years.”

The Warren & Flick duo crafts a compelling sound that blends original composition and improvisation. Their albums, Kestrel (2019), Waxwing (2022), and Cormorant (2025), all carry bird themes using inventive textures and a spirit of curiosity. The Honeywell Arts Academy alumni will also perform on the evening of April 29 at the Eagles Theatre as part of the academy’s concert series.

“Take Flight! is a truly varied program featuring works inspired by things that fly — winged mythological creatures, airplanes, birds, clouds, and aliens,” Lynn said. “It no only includes the world premiere of ‘The Flock’ but features the U.S. premiere of a little-known piece by an Irish composer, Seóirse Bodley, and some film music. It will be an exciting program for those who love symphonic music, but I hope it will also entice people who don’t typically attend orchestra concerts to give the MSO a try.”

The MSO’s theme of flight endures with “A small white cloud drifts over Ireland” by Bodley, which creates the feeling of what it would be like to be a cloud looking down on the land.

“Inventing Flight” by William Bolcom depicts in three movements stories of first flights, both in myth and history, beginning with Daedalus building artificial wings of wax and feathers to escape imprisonment, and his son Icarus falling to his death after flying too close to the sun; followed by Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machine; and Wilbur and Orville Wright’s airplain.

The MSO’s 87th season ends on a high note with the popular “Flying Theme” from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial by John Williams.

The concert sponsor is MPS Egg Farms.

North Manchester is one of the smallest communities in the nation with its own symphony orchestra. Residents of Wabash County and what was then Manchester College founded the symphony in 1939. That partnership continues today, in its 87th season, with a carefully crafted collaboration of professional and community musicians, as well as selected Manchester University faculty, staff, and student musicians.  Learn more at www.manchestersymphonyorchestra.org.

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