Ithaca College
10/13/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/13/2025 07:37
Fall Into Performance at IC
Fall Into Performance at IC
By Sloan MacRae, October 13, 2025
What to see, when to go, and how to experience it.
The Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra.
The Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra.
From Dillingham's stages to the concert halls at the Whalen Center, this fall's lineup showcases the student-faculty collaboration and craft that define the IC experience-for performers and audiences alike. Theatre features Thornton Wilder's Our Town (Oct 14-19, Clark Theatre) alongside Little Women: The Musical (Nov 12-18, Hoerner Theatre). On the music side, students tackle classics from the canon and rediscovered treasures-including the Jazz Ensemble's "Our Connections," the first program built from the newly donated Steve Brown/Ray Brown Jazz Library, and the Symphony Orchestra takes on Brahms's First-rarely attempted by college orchestras.
We're already mid-season, and this is just a snapshot-there's far more on the calendar than we can name here; explore the full listings.
Theatre
Students in the 2024 production of Urinetown: The Musical. Simon Wheeler
Our Town
Oct 14-19, Clark Theatre
Thu, Fri, Sun at 7:30 pm
Sat and Sun at 1:30 pm
Directed by Cynthia Henderson, Thornton Wilder's landmark drama is narrated by a Stage Manager and staged with almost no scenery-actors often mime props and work on a bare stage-keeping the focus on the Webb and Gibbs families as everyday life in Grover's Corners moves from first love to marriage and, finally, to the spare, devastating cemetery scene, one of the most iconic and influential moments in American theatre. This production follows Wilder's own instructions for a minimal, imagination-first staging.
Why it's a staple
- Premiered in 1938 at the McCarter Theatre, moved to Broadway, and won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; it remains one of the most frequently revived American plays.
- Wilder's metatheatrical Stage Manager breaks the fourth wall, guiding the audience through three acts-"Daily Life," "Love and Marriage," and "Death and Eternity"-a form that was strikingly innovative at the time.
- The radical "No curtain. No scenery." approach (for 1938) helped shift American theatre toward simplicity and direct address, restoring attention to "the small details of life."
"This is a show about finding your voice, staying true to yourself, and cherishing the people who shape you."
Courtney Young Socher, associate professor, director of "Little Women: The Musical"
Little Women: The Musical
Nov 12-18, Hoerner Theatre
Wed (preview) at 7:30 pm
Fri, Mon, Tue at 7:30 pm
Sun at 1:30 pm
This musical adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's beloved and groundbreaking novel features a book by Allan Knee, music by Jason Howland, and lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and is directed by Courtney Young Socher, with music direction by Christopher Zemliauskas.
How will it translate from page to stage? Director Socher leans into the March sisters' modernity. "What I love most about bringing Little Women to the stage is how timeless these characters feel-Jo's fierce independence, Meg's quiet strength, Beth's gentle wisdom, and Amy's ambition all resonate just as powerfully today as they did in Alcott's time," she says. "This is a show about finding your voice, staying true to yourself, and cherishing the people who shape you."
For fans of the novel, Socher promises a faithful spirit with new emotional depth: "The songs give voice to feelings that simmer beneath the surface in the book-Jo's artistic passion, Amy's complex relationship with her sister, those tender moments between the sisters that define who they become." Audiences can "expect an experience that celebrates both the joys and heartbreaks of growing up, the unbreakable bonds of family, and the courage it takes to forge your own path."
Behind the scenes, students and designers are building a world that feels "both period-authentic and emotionally immediate," she adds. "You can feel the love this entire company has for this story."
Music
Members of the Jazz Ensemble in 2024. Connor Lange '19
Jazz Ensemble
Our Connections: Celebrating the Steve Brown / Ray Brown Jazz Library Collection
Oct 14, 7:00 pm, Ford Hall
The Jazz Ensemble presents the first concert devoted to the Steve Brown / Ray Brown Jazz Library-newly donated to Ithaca College by Steve and Ray-a trove of more than 1,600 charts amassed by retired longtime director of jazz studies Steve Brown and his brother, arranger Ray Brown, alongside works by noted composers from across the jazz world. Professor and director of jazz studies Mike Titlebaum curates a program drawn from the collection to honor Steve's four decades shaping jazz at IC (1968-2008) and to spotlight the musical relationships threaded through it, including faculty, alumni, mentors, and heroes.
On the set list: Steve's "Bossa Barbara" (composed in honor of Steve's wife Barbara and arranged by Ray) featuring guest guitarist Dan Greenleaf '24-who helped catalog the library and, like Steve, plays guitar-Chuck Mangione's "Bellavia," and Titlebaum's 1988 "Something 'Bout This Place," showcasing Dan Persad '84 on trumpet. The evening doubles as a reunion vibe for musicians connected to an IC jazz cohort from the late 1980s, making "Our Connections" both a tribute and a living archive brought to life onstage.
The Wind Ensemble perform at the Founder's Day Concert in downtown Ithaca earlier this year. Tessa Dill
Wind Ensemble
Transformation
Oct 17, 7:00 pm, Ford Hall
Under director of bands and conductor Daniel Cook, the Wind Ensemble maps transformation of sound, character, and story across four sharply contrasting works. Cook frames the idea as music that represents emotions, characters, or themes, and asks what we learn about those characters when they're played by instruments.
The evening lifts off with Reena Esmail's "Tuttarana," a three-minute, high-velocity opener that fuses the ensemble's full tutti -Italian for "all together," meaning the entire group plays as one-with the virtuosic tarana tradition from Hindustani vocal concerts. From there, "Mothership"by composer Mason Bates, who used to be a club DJ, launches with an onstage DJ playing samples while the instruments "dock" and depart like spacecraft. "You get this techno groovy stuff," Cook says, "and slow-jazz kind of stuff," including a quirky oboe solo from assistant professor Luis Gallo Quintero.
Lindsey Bronnenkant's Tarot turns character study into sound painting, akin to Holst's The Planets , but with archetypes from the Tarot-so listeners hear three cards evolve in color, texture, and mood. The program culminates in Percy Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy , born of the composer's 1906-08 wax-cylinder field recordings of English folk singers. Though entirely instrumental, the piece preserves both songs' and singers' personalities: a conversational quartet of soprano sax, oboe, bassoon, and baritone sax sketches a reunion between long-separated lovers; later, a brass-driven movement channels a warlord "several beers in," reminiscing with bluster.
For the players, Cook says, the challenge is theatrical as much as technical: "It's not good enough just to play the piece with technical proficiency … You have to play this one like an 80-year-old man reminiscing about the past."
Concert Band
Around the World in 60 Minutes
Oct 24, 7:00 pm, Ford Hall
Associate professor Benjamin Rochford ups the ante on Jules Verne with a musical circumnavigation completed in just one hour-stopping in Peru, Havana (Cuba), San Antonio (Texas), Stillwater (Oklahoma), and Russia to show how places and cultures shape sound.
"The reason that a lot of college orchestras won't play a Brahms Symphony is because of the difficulty … it takes a really sophisticated orchestra to pull it off."
Ho-Yin Kwok, assistant professor, conducting IC's Symphony Orchestra in their upcoming performance of Brahms' Symphony No. 1
Symphony Orchestra
Oct 31, 7:00 pm, Ford Hall
Assistant professor and conductor Ho-Yin Kwok frames the program as "under the shadow," two works by composers who honored tradition while forging their own paths. The first half features Florence Price's (1887-1953) Violin Concerto No. 1 (1939)-lost to the world until 2009-performed by IC violinist and assistant professor Teagan Faran in her first collaboration with the Symphony Orchestra. Kwok notes parallels to Tchaikovsky's violin concerto ("They're both in D major, with a very similar first-movement structure.") and adds that "you can hear Price incorporating folklore and African American spirituals," stepping out of Tchaikovsky's shadow to make her indelible mark.
The second half is Brahms's Symphony No. 1, a monument nearly two decades in the making as Brahms worked in Beethoven's long shadow. "He paid tribute to Beethoven-saving contrabassoon and trombones for the last movement and shaping a finale theme with a close resemblance to Ode to Joy -yet he finds his own voice in musical style and counterpoint," Kwok says. "The reason that a lot of college orchestras won't play a Brahms Symphony is because of the difficulty … it takes a really sophisticated orchestra to pull it off." Of IC's orchestra, he says, "they'll rise to the challenge."
Looking Ahead & How to Go
Connor Lange '19
More upcoming highlights (chronological)
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Oct 15-18 - Dillingham Spotlight 1: GalaThea (McCarroll Theatre)
The Dillingham Spotlight series presents two fully produced, student-run productions each semester in the Earl McCarroll Studio Theatre-celebrating emerging theatremakers at IC.
Wed, Oct 15, 7:30 pm (Preview) • Thu, Oct 16, 7:30 pm • Fri, Oct 17, 7:30 pm • Sat, Oct 18, 1:30 pm and 7:30 pm -
Nov 6-9 - New Play 29-Hour Workshop: American Promise (McCarroll Theatre)
A verbatim piece built from interviews with immigrants, probing empathy, embodiment, and what theatre can (and can't) carry.
Thu, Nov 6, 7:30 pm • Fri, Nov 7, 7:30 pm • Sun, Nov 9, 1:30 pm and 7:30 pm - Nov 9, 3:00 pm - Madrigal Singers
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Nov 12, 13 & 16 - Dillingham Spotlight 2: Tales of the Voiceless (McCarroll Theatre)
Wed, Nov 12, 7:30 pm • Thu, Nov 13, 7:30 pm • Sun, Nov 16, 1:30 pm and 7:30 pm - Nov 18, 8:15 pm - Wind Ensemble
- Nov 20, 7:00 pm - African Drumming and Dance
- Dec 2, 8:15 pm - Concert Band
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Dec 3-8 - Witch by Jen Silverman (McCarroll Theatre)
A charming devil offers to buy souls; Elizabeth-labeled "witch"-doesn't sell. Silverman retools a Jacobean plot into a sharp, funny debate over desire, agency, and the going rate for hope.
Audience advisory: Adult subject matter, language, and violence.
Performance dates & times: Wed, Dec 3, 7:30 pm • Fri, Dec 5, 7:30 pm • Sat, Dec 6, 1:30 pm and 7:30 pm • Sun, Dec 7, 1:30 pm • Mon, Dec 8, 7:30 pm - Dec 2, 8:15 pm - Concert Band
- Dec 4, 7:00 pm - Chamber Music
- Dec 8, 7:00 pm - Campus Band
- Dec 9, 8:15 pm - Jazz Ensemble
- Dec 10, 8:15 pm - Symphony Orchestra
This roundup is only a slice-MTD offers daily performances, from student recitals to guest artists and additional concerts by ensembles and performances by student organizations. Explore the full listings.
For tickets, visit: Tickets (Purplepass)
Most performances are free.
Can't make a concert? Follow the livestream, and peruse the archive of previous concerts.
Take it from the top.
Find your program at the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, and learn about applications and auditions.
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