Quickly establishing herself as one of today’s leading conductors, Ruth Reindhart is highly acclaimed for her imaginative and elegant performances. In her NOI+F debut, she leads the NOI Philharmonic in a tour de force program anchored by Dvořák’s monumental New World Symphony. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is among the leading British composers in music history. His Ballade in A minor was commissioned by the Three Choirs Festival in Britain and launched the composer to prominence with its spirited warmth and passion.

Dynamic American conductor and frequent NOI+F guest Andrew Grams reunites with the NOI Philharmonic for a program that contemplates various aspects of the human experience–struggle and suffering, innocence and victory. Written to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the British abolotion of slavery, Mighty River by Belize-born Britisih composer Errollyn Wallen explores the devastating history of slavery. Gospel and spirituals are at the core of the piece, breaking barriers in contemporary classical composition.

Artistic Director of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society and University of Maryland School of Music faculty member Kenneth Slowik makes his NOI+F conducting debut in a special program featuring repertoire by Stravinsky, Bacewicz and Mendelssohn. Drawing upon a combination of woodwind and brass instruments, Symphonies of Wind Instruments creates serene beauty through Igor Stravinsky’s signature harmonic austerity.

Long-time NOI+F collaborator and Albany Symphony Music Director David Alan Miller leads the NOI Philharmonic in their first performance since 2019. The program brings together works that create a cycle of drama, separation, sorrow, healing and victory–perfectly encapsulating life during the twin pandemics facing our country.

The Clarice’s National Orchestral Institute + Festival returns to the stage for the first time since COVID-19 upended life as we knew it! In this special opening performance, NOI+F fellows take the reins in a program that combines the demands of chamber music playing with those of large ensemble performance. The 2021 orchestral fellows will perform without a conductor and lead each other in chamber orchestra repertoire by Mozart, Haydn, Grant Still and Korngold.