Take The Reins: Chamber Orchestra Concert | NOI Philharmonic

Witness the 2026 NOI+F Orchestral Fellows unleash their musicality in a collaborative symphony performance unlike any other! Our annual Take the Reins concert, performed without a conductor, welcomes members of the NOI Philharmonic to take charge of the entire rehearsal process, from the practice room to the stage. The result is in an impressive presentation of the musicians’ unfiltered musical interpretations. This year’s program features the premiere of a new work by the highly-acclaimed composer Viet Cuong, whose orchestral arrangement of his piece John and Jim premiered at last year’s festival. Alongside it is Richard Strauss’s 1941 composition, Divertimento for Chamber Orchestra After Keyboard Pieces by Couperin, a neoclassical hidden gem of the symphonic repertoire based on the influential works for harpsichord by baroque-era composer François Couperin. Rounding out the program is Symphony No. 70 in D Major, a delightfully playful and highly-reputed piece by the father of the symphony orchestra, Franz Joseph Haydn.