Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra: Pulse – Melissa White, Violin

The Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra takes the stage at the Schrott Center for the Arts on Saturday, November 21, with violinist Melissa White as the featured soloist. The program is titled Pulse, and it's billed as a night alive with energy, lyricism and American spirit, put together in honor of America250. Music Director Matthew Kraemer conducts the orchestra, and White is named the Christel DeHaan Legacy Artist of the evening.

The program moves across a few different eras of American music. It opens with Gabriela Lena Frank's Concertino Cusqueño, a piece that blends classical form with Andean influences. Then comes Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto, one of the most recognized American concertos of the twentieth century. The night also features a world premiere: Tucker Fuller's Limerence, a new work making its first appearance here. And it closes with Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring, a piece so tied to the American landscape that it's practically a national landmark in its own right.

Melissa White brings a lot of history to the soloist chair. She's been a founding member of the Grammy-winning Harlem Quartet since 2006 and was a first-prize laureate of the Sphinx Competition. As a soloist, she's played with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Pops, and the Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. Internationally, she's performed with Poland's Filharmonia Dolnoslaska, the Czech National Philharmonic and the Colombian Youth Orchestra. In 2023, she shared the stage with Hilary Hahn at London's Wigmore Hall, and in 2019, she recorded a violin solo for Jordan Peele's thriller Us. When she isn't on stage, she teaches at New York University's Steinhardt School and the University of Buffalo. She plays a 1780 Ferdinando Gagliano violin on loan from Strumenti.

The concert is presented by FBT Gibbons. It runs from 7:30 to 9:30 PM at the Schrott Center for the Arts, located at Butler University, 610 W. 46th St., Indianapolis, IN 46208.