Emens Auditorium will be filled the sounds of Smetana, Berlioz and Elgar as the Muncie Symphony Orchestra takes the stage for a concert Sunday.
The orchestra will be performing under the baton of guest conductor Nobuyoshi Yasuda, who is also a finalist candidate for the MSO's music director position. The orchestra has spent the last year looking for a successor to Leonard Atherton, who retired from the position last season.
The MSO has spent the 2003-2004 concert schedule under the direction of guest conductors.
Executive director Sandra Kelly said that the MSO has stepped up to the challenge of playing under a different conductor each concert.
"It's been an exciting season," she said. "The guest conductors have done a wonderful job, and I think they inspired the orchestra to new levels."
Kelly said the public's reaction to the orchestra's performances has been overwhelmingly positive.
"We've had a standing ovation at every concert," she said.
Kelly said that the music director position involves a diverse range of roles, some of which she has had to take on this year.
"The major responsibilities are to rehearse the orchestra and conduct the concert, but (also) researching and selecting the music, working with the personnel manager to hire the best musicians we can find ... raising money, listening to the community and getting input on what kinds of programming people want," Kelly said.
Ball State music professor Mihai Tetel will be featured in Edward Elgar's "Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra," the second piece to be performed. Tetel normally serves as principal cellist in the MSO but is making his debut as a soloist with the group.
Tetel said that preparation for a featured solo begins long before the performance date.
"My own preparation began many months ago," he said. "If I have a concerto and I'm a soloist, especially if it's a work I've never played before, I give myself at least one full year to learn the work."
Tetel has played Elgar's "Concerto" before, with a community symphony in Toronto 20 years ago. He said that he hopes Sunday's performance enjoys the benefits of a more seasoned musician.
"When you are younger, you are exuberant. You are anxious sometimes to get to the end or to prove something, and you might not see opportunities in the music," he said.
"When you are older you see more opportunities along the way, so you are able to do (the piece) more justice because you are a more experienced person."
Tetel also said he's excited about the opportunity to perform as a soloist in front of his fellow MSO musicians.
"I am very much looking forward to playing in front of my friends and colleagues and students," Tetel said. "I work with these people every day, and they have seen me before as a teacher, as a principal cellist, as a chamber musician ... it is special because I get to show a different side of my ability."
Sunday's concert begins at 2:30 p.m.
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