The LaPorte Symphony
Wonderful Music Over
the Years
Adapted and updated
from the writings of Mary Utley, longtime program note annotator,
writer and unofficial historian the LaPorte County Symphony.
"For a City of 22,000 to boast a symphony orchestra -
especially one that is
Healthy and solvent - is not exactly common." Those words
appeared in a SOUTH
BEND TRIBUNE article when the LaPorte Symphony Orchestra was
six years old. Today it is in its 32nd season, healthier than
ever and
still solvent. It is remarkable because LaPorte is surrounded
by institutions such as Notre Dame, Valparaiso,
and Indiana Universities, that also support orchestras.
LaPorte's location near Chicago provides convenient access to
outstanding musical institutions, such as the
Chicago Symphony and Lyric Opera.
The LCSO was conceived in the winter of 1971 by a young LaPorte
music
teacher, John Bennett, and came into being the following year,
its nucleus being a sixteen-member chamber group already in
existence. Its first performance featured the music of Rossini,
Handel, Gershwin, and Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony." In
those days, the board of directors' main topic of discussion
might have been "Who will bring the cookies for the reception,
and who will make the punch?"
How times have changed! Today, a seventeen member board
administers a
$150,000 annual budget and sponsors a Young Artists' Competition
each year in
which dozens of youth from across northern Indiana and southern
Michigan have competed,
many continuing in the music field and some performing internationally.
Named the LaPorte Symphony because
of its origin, it has since been renamed the LaPorte County
Symphony Orchestra, but it is more than that. Only about one-third
of its musicians come from LaPorte; the rest
travel from as far away as Hammond on the Illinois state line,
South Bend to the east, and southern Michigan. Some of
the concerts are played in Michigan City. Many of the LaPorte
Symphony's people are home-grown or, at least, resident transplants.
They could be anybody's neighbors: doctors, dentists, lawyers,
homebuilders, teachers, housewives, retirees and students.
The members of the governing board are people who recognize
the LCSO as a cultural gem and community asset.
Since its founding by John Bennett, the orchestra has had
only seven music directors over the years. Several of its conductors
have been members of neighboring orchestras; the present
one, Philip Bauman, has had experience with the Battle Creek
Symphony, Chicago Opera Theater, the Elgin Symphony Orchestra
and the Northwest Indiana Symphony among others.
Over the years the LaPorte Symphony has played four world
premiere pieces of
music: one composed by guest conductor Zeal Fisher,
commemorating its 20th season, a suite from the musical
score of the motion picture "Prancer,"
filmed in the La Porte area, home of its director; and most
recently, an arrangement by
LaPorte native Alan Barcus of Gershwin's "Summertime," featuring
three vocalists, the symphony orchestra
and Tom Milo's Big Band.
In 1976 LCSO celebrated our country's bicentennial anniversary
with a giant, sold-out concert that included the Walther League
Chorus of St. John's Lutheran
Church and the 100-member Maple City Drum and Bugle Corps.
Many of the orchestra's concerts are held in
the 3,000 seat
Civic Auditorium, including an annual
Boston Pops-type concert,
complete with candlelight, decorated tables, and refreshments.
There is also a remarkable day of Children's Concerts requiring
the strategy and planning of a D-day
invasion. A veritable armada of school buses surrounds the
auditorium for each concert and unloads 7,000 youngsters for
three performances in one day. To whet the appetite of school children,
many orchestra members participate in docent
programs, taking their instruments and talents into area schools
to
demonstrate what pleasures lie ahead.
The LaPorte Symphony has never shied away from artistic challenges;
rather,
It has explored the entire gamut of musical literature.