Nearly 50 musicians filled the stage at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Sunday for “Between Silence and Strauss,” a cross-cultural performance by the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra.
The show was in partnership with the IU Asian Culture Center and highlighted Japanese instruments and composers. It also included numerous songs from early composer Richard Strauss, mixing western music with traditional Japanese music. Throughout the show, five special guests performed with the orchestra.
The first musician was 17-year-old Ella Hightower, making her Bloomington Symphony Orchestra debut. Highwater was the 2026 Bloomington Symphony Orchestra Youth Concerto Competition Winner. She performed a section of “Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53” by Antonín Dvořák.
Highlighting the Japanese composers and traditional instruments was guest Shawn Tairyu Head. The musician also participated in a pre-show talk with Bloomington Symphony Orchestra music director Ryo Hasegawa about the show and instrument, the Shakuhachi, a Japanese flute made from bamboo.
Head, who is American, talked about his background and how he got interested in Japanese music through old samurai movies and anime. He spoke further about the show and a song he would perform with the orchestra called “Autumn Wind” by Toshio Hosokawa, one of Japan’s leading composers.
The song includes use of the Shakuhachi, and, during the pre-show talk, Head said the song was an expression of nature. The song doesn’t have the traditional melodies of western music either, he said.
Though the song by Hosokawa doesn’t have traditional melodies, Head said the composer was still inspired by western composers, such as Strauss, after studying in Germany. During the show Head discussed how Hosokawa’s music often bridges the gap between Japanese traditional music and western composers, which is why the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra chose to include both Japanese music and Strauss’s music for the show.
“The connection between some of the cultural Japanese music and Richard Strauss that they were talking about, and how Strauss influenced musicians who traveled from Japan, I thought that was incredibly interesting,” audience member 28-year-old David Sexton said.
Sexton came to the performance because his girlfriend, Rachel Spodek, was one of three vocalists alongside Danielle Long and Siyi Yan, who performed with the orchestra in the final trio of the show, which included opera elements unlike the rest of the show. The trio performed a selection from “Der Rosenkavalier,” an opera written by Strauss.
The opera, which is in German, is about a Marschallin, who is an older woman that Spodek played. The character has an affair with younger man named Octavian, played by Long. Octavian eventually meets Sophie, played by Yan, and they fall in love.
“So, in this finale trio, a lot of the text of what they’re saying is Octavian and Sophie celebrating this love that they have together and realizing that it’s kind of happening thanks to the Marschallin,” Spodek said. “The Marschallin is letting go and sort of passing the torch along to this younger woman, so it’s beautiful and bittersweet.”
Spodek has a master’s degree in voice performance and is currently at IU to get a performer diploma in voice performance. She got involved in the show after one of the soloists reached out to her, knowing she sang a lot of songs from Strauss’ catalogue.
“This is some of my favorite music in the whole world,” Spodek said. “Like the ‘Rosenkavalier,’ especially this finale trio, is truly, like, one of my favorite pieces of music ever.”
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Will Witters, an IU alumnus who studied harpsichord performance, came to the event after one of the clarinetists, who Witters also sings with in a choir, told him about it. Voces Novae, the Bloomington-based chamber choir Witters is part of, will perform with the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra on May 16 for its performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 9”.
As a musician himself, Witters thought the show was impressive. His favorite part was when the orchestra performed “Flower of Mandala” by Kosaku Yamada. He said that being a tone poem, which is an orchestral piece that tells a story, the conductor tried to evoke a certain imagery which he thought was beautiful.
“I think art at all levels is really important because if we don’t make art, we don’t have an inspiration to keep going in our day-to-day life,” Witters said. “If we don’t get out and support people who are making art, then they might stop and that would just be a tragedy for all of us.”