Mike Wolanin | The Republic The Columbus Philharmonic Youth Orchestra Ensemble performs during the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic annual meeting at Helen Haddad Hall in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Aug. 22, 2025.
Just like the name of Columbus Indiana Philharmonic’s upcoming “Legacies” concert, the legacy of music in an upcoming concert will be passed down from the professor to the student.
That’s because this concert will feature the Philharmonic Youth Orchestra playing side-by-side with the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic. Though the two orchestras collaborate twice every season, CIP music director Isaac Selya said they wanted to include them in this concert particularly to tie into its theme of legacy and what one leaves behind.
“… I think every single professional musician will have a story about someone, a teacher or a mentor or a role model, that had a huge impact on why they became a musician, the kind of music that they like doing and we want to continue paying that forward, to just create these situations where young musicians can learn from and be inspired by more established musicians,” Selya said.
“Legacies” will be performed Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Columbus North High School’s Erne Auditorium. Tickets can be purchased at thecip.org.
The Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic will start the concert with “To Zanarkand,” a piece composed by Nobuo Uematsu for the video game “Final Fantasy X.”
“… when you hear the music, you might not know that it’s from a video game,” Selya said. “It has this very, very epic, almost melancholy feel to it as if you’re embarking on this adventure as just a normal person and you have no idea what the actual impact you’re going to have on the world is.”
The two orchestras also collaborate during the Philharmonic Youth Orchestra’s Adventures concert series that they perform for local third and fourth graders, assisted living facilities and Toyota, according to the Philharmonic’s website. Vanessa Edwards, director of the Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, said the youth orchestra began rehearsing for this concert in January.
“… not all of them but most of them, recognize the music and just the opportunity to play with CIP musicians is just incredible,” Edwards said. “They’re very excited about it.”
During these concerts, each youth orchestra member sits on stage next to their professional counterparts, which Edwards says gives the students a great opportunity to sit on stage next to and perform music with a professional musician. At the same time, it gives CIP musicians an opportunity to help the student out and give pointers, she said.
“They might give them a suggestion for some way to make something sound a little bit better so… sometimes they have an opportunity for a tiny, mini lesson or something like that,” Edwards said. “It’s just a lot of children don’t get this opportunity and I’m very grateful to the Philharmonic for offering this for the PYO musicians.”
Other music to be featured in the concert include Johannes Brahms’ “Symphony No. 4,” the last symphony he composed, and Richard Strauss’ “Death and Transfiguration.” This piece portrays an artist’s final moments and what impact they’ll leave behind and was written while Strauss worked as an assistant with an aging Brahms.
He believes working with Brahms may have had an impact on Strauss’ “Death and Transfiguration” piece. This particular piece was also one that had a huge impact on Selya when he played in youth orchestras, as it showed him how music can depict emotional states, aspirations and give one empathy to understand someone else’s experience in a different stage of life.
“So I think just giving that exposure to young musicians, even if they’re not playing but they’re just in the room, they’re like, ‘oh I went and I was playing side-by-side with the Philharmonic for this ‘Final Fantasy’ piece and before they did that, I heard them play this other piece by Strauss, this other piece by Brahms,’ I think it’s just a really, really important lesson about the power of music,” Selya said.
