The Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra brings its season to a close Saturday at W.K. Kellogg Auditorium with "Welcome Home," a concert built around Peter Boyer's Ellis Island: The Dream of America — a Grammy-nominated work for actors and orchestra that draws on real immigrant testimonies. Music director Anne Harrigan and Teri Noaeill, the new executive director of the Music Center of South Central Michigan, joined Cara Lieurance to preview the 7:30 p.m. performance.
Harrigan says she programmed the concert two and a half years ago, long before immigration became a flashpoint in national politics. "I had no idea how timely this program would be," she tells Lieurance. Boyer's piece weaves seven monologues — drawn from the Ellis Island Oral History Project — with orchestral music and projected archival images. The Battle Creek Symphony previously performed the work in 2005; this marks Harrigan's fourth time conducting it.
Noaeill, who co-directs the production alongside Battle Creek resident Garrett Martin, describes the rehearsal process as deeply affecting. "It just reminded me of the roots of who we are and how we came here," she says, adding that several of the seven actors are performing on stage for the first time. Actors joined the full orchestra for the first time only this week, with a performance for more than 1,000 schoolchildren scheduled for Friday morning.
The concert opens with the third movement of Jasmine Ariel Barnes' kinsfolknem— its Battle Creek premiere — featuring the orchestra's own principal winds as soloists. Venezuelan-born horn player Nelson Yovera Pérez, who won his first U.S. audition with the Battle Creek Symphony before going on to principal positions with the Tucson Symphony and Naples Philharmonic, returns as soloist for Richard Strauss's Horn Concerto No. 2. Harrigan notes that his immigrant story mirrors the concert's larger themes.
Harrigan also previews the orchestra's upcoming 128th season and reveals that audiences will be treated to a season announcement Saturday night. Tickets are available at BattleCreekSymphony.org or by calling 269-963-1911.
The interview was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.
