A wave of silence ascended upon the audience as the lights dimmed. Musicians sat with their backs straight in their chairs as they awaited the cue from the director to raise their instruments to a playing position. Anticipation swept across the audience while they waited for the deep resonance of the cellos of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

On Thursday evening, a large audience flooded into Foellinger Great Hall within the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts to attend a performance by the world-leading Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 

The Orchestra usually comes to Urbana once a year to perform at the KCPA, but the pandemic halted their appearances – the last one at the University was in October 2019. 

But this year, the Orchestra has returned in full power under the direction of Grammy-winning conductor Paavo Järvi.

Tickets for the show were completely sold out, and while a few couldn’t make it, the Foellinger Great Hall was packed with over 1,600 people. This was KCPA’s first sold-out show since they reopened.

“It’s amazing, we miss playing for live audiences so long that just having such a grateful audience too, I think that everyone appreciates it a lot more,” said Danny Lai, violist for the Orchestra.

The concert started with a short overture by the French composer Hector Berlioz called “Roman Carnival.” It was then followed by Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto, and the performance ended with another Berlioz piece, “Symphonie fantastique.” 

Award-winning British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor joined the Orchestra during the Chopin piece. This was Grosvenor’s debut with the CSO as well as his first stop on his 2022 U.S. tour. 

When asked about how his experience was working with Grosvenor, Lai had nothing to say but praise.

“He’s fantastic, he had such a great touch on the piano and he just goes with how he feels,” Lai said.

Austin Motley, graduate student in Engineering, was impressed by Grosvenor’s musicianship. 

“The movement of the Chopin piece was incredible,” Motley said. “He played some ridiculous scales, and he had such good control with the softer parts of the piece it was so amazing.”

Motley attended the performance with fellow graduate student Richard Alonzo who has seen the Orchestra several times. Alonzo said that he and Motley were both excited to experience CSO on campus.

“I think it’s incredible that we can get such a low price for such a world-class Symphony,” Motley said.

The audience was filled with diverse groups of community members and students, some in evening wear but also a few in the bright orange and blue colors of the University. CSO tickets can cost up to hundreds of dollars, but because of the student subsidies included in tuition, students were able to purchase a ticket for only $10.  

Tiffany Duong, senior in Information Sciences, got to see CSO perform for the first time. She said that she made use of the opportunity to make the event an informal social outing with 17 others from her RSO. 

“In high school, I used to be part of the band and the orchestra where I played clarinet, so it was really cool to hear a professional orchestra playing music and how synchronized they all were,” Duong said. 

The concert concluded with a standing ovation from the audience as they appreciated a piece of Chicago that once again made its way back to the KCPA.

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