Musicians from the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra will compete in the Orchestra Games at 3 p.m. Feb. 10 at Bloomington High School South.
Written by composer Gregory Smith, the Orchestra Games is a free, family-friendly concert structured like the Olympics. The musicians will face off in various events including the Low Note Limbo, the Fast Note Dash and the Soft Note/Loud Note Event.
“It definitely brings more charisma into the orchestra because I feel like there’s kind of a stereotype with classical music especially,” said Emily Howson, IU freshman and BSO cellist. “I’ve played with people from all different backgrounds that really just are doing it because they love music, and they love what music has done for them.”
The teams are divided up by section including strings, brass, percussion and woodwinds. The different competitions will be accompanied by play-by-play coverage from the narrator and then judged by percussion section members.
“We do it because we want to share joy with other people through music,” Howson said. “It’s definitely the perfect format to do that because it has that childish, fun aspect to it.”
In addition to the competitions, Elson Koh, violinist and runner-up in the BSO’s 2019 Youth Concerto Competition and musicians from the Hoosier Youth Philharmonic will also perform in the concert.
