Photo by Tim Miller Isaac Selya conducts the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic at a past concert.
The Columbus Indiana Philharmonic has announced its 2025-2026 season with the theme of “Horizon — A Musical Journey.”
This season, according to Music Director Isaac Selya, takes what has worked in previous seasons and builds upon them, such as their collaboration with Landmark Columbus Foundation.
The season will start with one such collaboration with “Mission: Prague” on Sept. 27, featuring the music of Mission: Impossible, Mozart and Dvořák.
“So architecture wise, I don’t know what exactly what is in store. I know just that Prague has some pretty interesting architecture and we’ll see what Richard McCoy has up his sleeve in terms of some kind of a comparison,” Selya said. “But the music is going to be really, really compelling because we’re opening with the theme from ‘Mission: Impossible’ by Lalo Schifrin…”
Similarly to the previous concert expanding on the collaboration with Landmark Columbus, Oct. 25’s “A Little Knight Music” continues the Philharmonic’s implementation of both classical music and music from video games and films into one concert.
“This one is going to be kind of knightly music, and it has some anime inspired music, it has some video game inspired music, it has some film inspired music and then it also has some classical stuff all together,” Selya said.
There’s plenty of new ideas this season too, such as the holiday program “Retrophonic Christmas,” on Dec. 6. Selya said while the holiday programs have mostly focused on traditional Christmas music in the past, this season’s program will feature guest vocalist Joan Ellison performing traditional holiday favorites in the styles of famous divas such as Judy Garland.
Other concerts this season include March 7’s “Legacies,” which is to feature the Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic playing side-by-side in a concert that explores what is left after we die. April 18’s “Mozart’s Requiem” will feature the Philharmonic Chorus in a performance of one of Mozart’s last pieces, one that was ultimately left unfinished.
“… people are always finding like these random sheets of paper in museums or archives and they’re like, ‘oh my God, this is an extra page of music for the Mozart Requiem,’” Selya said. “So this is a new addition that incorporates some of the most recent discoveries that… if people already know the Mozart Requiem and have heard the standard version, they’re still going to recognize it, they’re still going to like it, but then there are a few little surprises in there.”
Concluding the season will be a new and exciting concert that Selya said they have always wanted to try. “Philharmonic Sangeet,” to be on May 9, will feature a mix of traditional Indian music and classical music that is relevant in some way to India, he said.
“We’ve been planning this one for a while and thinking of, like, ‘OK, this would be something that’s super cool to try out,’ because our board president (Rajesh Thyagarajan) is Indian, and I know there’s so many Indians living in Columbus,” Selya said. “So we were like, ‘hey, it would be really cool to connect with that community.’”
Season tickets can be purchased now on the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic’s website. Times, dates and locations for all concerts can also be found on the website as well.
