YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The secret to the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming performance with a fireworks display is the click track.
A click track is simply a recording of each beat in a song or symphonic work as it occurs, which helps musicians keep the proper pace.
Each musician will listen to the click track through an earpiece for the final 20 minutes of the YSO’s July 5 concert. That will keep the entire orchestra on pace with the fireworks explosions that will bring the concert to a dramatic finish.
The concert at Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre will be the city’s Fourth of July family festival, and part of the America 250 celebration of the nation’s semiquincentennial.
It will feature stirring music punctuated by colorful fireworks in the night sky. Dubbed Ignite the Night, it was funded by Youngstown Rotary, which contributed $40,000.
The evening will begin with family friendly activities, starting at 6 p.m. The concert will start at 8:30 p.m. Admission is free.
Erik Ochsner, music director and conductor of the YSO, has assembled a program of pop music, brisk marches and patriotic songs. The final 20 minutes of the concert – starting at 9:50 p.m. – will be performed with fireworks.
“I created a program that tries to be friendly to a lot of different people,” Ochsner says.
His program ranges from Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” to Nino Rota’s “Theme from The Godfather” and from Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” to “Golden” from the KPop Demon Hunters animated Netflix series.
“Golden,” which won a Grammy Award, will be sung by Jackie Popovec of The Vindys.
Popovec will also sing “The Wizard and I” from “Wicked,” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from “The Wizard of Oz.”
It will be the second time Popovec will sing with the YSO. She and the Vindys performed with the orchestra in a 2024 concert at Powers Auditorium that was helmed by Ochsner.
Asking her to sing at the July 5 concert was “a no-brainer,” the conductor said.
“I had recently performed ‘The Wizard and I’ and enjoyed conducting it,” Ochsner said. “I asked Jackie if she would sing it and she said, ‘Let’s do it’ but also said she wanted to sing ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’ I said fine, let’s do it.”
The fireworks segment of the concert will feature Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever,” Morton Gould’s “American Salute,” John Williams’ march from “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” an excerpt from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 and an excerpt from his “1812 Overture” to close the show.
In addition to Ochsner and the musicians, the person in charge of setting off the fireworks will also be listening to the click track. Ochsner sent him a copy weeks ago, so he can design the display.
“He can say, ‘hey, I hear yellow in this piece,’ so he’ll put in a yellow firework,” Ochsner says, as an example.
“And the computer knows how much earlier it needs to set off the fireworks [to explode at the right time with the music]. It is so super cool and high tech.”
THE PROGRAM
The concert will start with The Star Spangled Banner, followed by Gershwin’s “Strike Up the Band.”
Leonard Bernstein’s “Three Dance Episodes,” Rota’s “Theme from The Godfather,” Ruggero Leoncavallo’s prologue from the opera “Pagliacci,” and Gershwin’s “Summertime” from “Porgy and Bess” will follow.
The piece from “Pagliacci” is a nod to Opera Western Reserve, which will perform the opera later this year.
“It’s a cross-marketing opportunity, and also a lovely short little overture,” Ochsner says.
The three songs with Popovec will follow, and then the first half of the concert will end with Richard Hayman’s “Pops Hoedown.”
The second half of the concert will begin with “Fanfare for the Common Man,” which came at the request of Matt Pagac, CEO of the symphony orchestra.
As a salute to the Rotary for sponsoring the event, a segment from Beethoven’s “Egmont” – which is also the Rotary Club’s international theme – will follow.
Bernstein’s overture to “West Side Story,” Paul Desmond’s “Take 5,” the theme music for The NFL on Fox telecasts and the Armed Forces Medley will close the second half, before the start of the fireworks finale.
“It’s always nice to honor and thank all of our service members who are there,” Ochsner says. “So we’ll introduce the Armed Forces Medley by saying ‘When you hear your theme, please stand up and receive your applause’,” Ochsner says.
Pictured at top: Jackie Popovec of The Vindys will sing several songs at the July 5 concert with the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra. She is shown here at a past concert with the Canton Symphony Orchestra.
