The Carmel Symphony Orchestra Celebrates Summer Solstice With Special Community Partners at Coxhall Gardens

The Carmel Symphony Orchestra invites you to celebrate the longest day of the year on June  21 at 8:30 pm, as the orchestra launches its first ever Summer Concert Series at Coxhall Gardens,, is located on the northwest side of Carmel.

Get ready to spend an evening under the stars as you enjoy pre-concert  performances by Central Indiana Academy of Dance, Dhol Indian Drumming,  Indiana Ballet Conservatory, and Kathak (North Indiana) Dance Academy starting at 5:00 pm.  Stay to hear the Carmel Symphony Orchestra perform solar related favorites as the sun goes down and reveals a full Strawberry Moon against the dark evening sky from 8:30 - 9:45 pm.  

Led by Principal Guest Conductor Joel Smirnoff, the Carmel Symphony Orchestra will be joined by Soloists Asako Tamura, former CSO Concerto Competition Winner Cooper Olsen and Carmel Jazz Festival Artistic Director Blair Clark. The trio of artists will perform works by Mendelssohn, Puccini, Barber, Gershwin, Vivaldi, and Carmichael as well as an original arrangement of Japanese folk songs by Conductor Joel Smirnoff.  The evening will end with special guest Blair Clark performing Stevie Wonder’s “You are the Sunshine of My Life.”

Asako Tamura

In 2002, Tamura launched her international career as the female soloist in the Three Tenors Concert with Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras at the Arena of Yokohama during the World Cup Championship. Since then she has made numerous appearances with various operas and orchestras around the world, including the Summer Opera Festival at the Foro Romano , the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, L.A. Asian American Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo City Orchestra, among others. 

Cooper Olsen

Former winner of the Carmel Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition, Olson studies violin with Professor Mimi Zweig in the String Academy at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and has won numerous solo awards including: first prize winner of the Michael Ben & Illene Komisarow Maurer Young Musicians Competition with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in 2022, as well as awards from the Tri-State Rising Artist Violin Competition at Northern Kentucky University, the Bloomington Symphony Competition, and the Rising Star Young  Artist Concerto Competition at Southeast Missouri State University.

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