IMAGINE: Stories in Sound

In this opening chapter of our IMAGINE season, we explore how music becomes story-and how story becomes connection. Kick off the season with a cinematic journey through memory, grit, and humanity, featuring violinist Holly Mulcahy and The Michael O’Neal Singers with a special appearance by film composer George S. Clinton, who will narrate his own work.

George S. Clinton has scored over 100 films in his 45-year career, most notably “Austin Powers” and its sequels; Disney’s “The Santa Clause” sequels; “Mortal Kombat” 1 & 2; and the Emmy Award-winning “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.” His violin concerto, The Rose of Sonora: a violin concerto in five scenes, written for and performed by acclaimed violinist Holly Mulcahy, paints a sweeping story of love and redemption. It is inspired by true stories about the lives of legendary women in the Old West and takes the listener on an epic western adventure of love, loss, and revenge.

Also on the program, Elgar’s Enigma Variations offers intimate musical portraits of friendship and connection. This concert invites you to experience music not just as sound, but as storytelling that stays with you.

Together, these works ask us to imagine not just where music can take us, but what it can reveal about who we are.

Holly Mulcahy is currently serving as concertmaster of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and Chattanooga Symphony & Opera. In addition to those leadership roles, she also serves as Wichita Symphony’s Partner for Audience Engagement, a position dedicated to building meaningful relationships with audiences by breaking down stereotypical barriers