Holiday Pops in the Heartland
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Get ready to deck the halls with music and merriment! The Illinois Symphony Orchestra invites you to experience Holiday Pops in the Heartland, the region’s most joyful holiday tradition. This festive celebration fills the halls with sparkling melodies, heartwarming classics, and plenty of holiday cheer—a perfect way to make your season bright.
Adding brilliance to the evening, internationally acclaimed soprano Mikaela Bennett will captivate audiences with her luminous voice, performing beloved holiday favorites and stepping into the role of storyteller as she narrates the charming and whimsical tale Another Night Before Christmas. Her artistry promises to make this an unforgettable centerpiece of the celebration.
This year’s program celebrates community spirit! In Bloomington, the Bloomington-Normal Youth Symphony joins forces with the ISO for an exhilarating side-by-side performance, blending youthful energy with orchestral brilliance. Adding a dash of fun, the winner of the Celebrity Conductor Challenge will take the podium to lead Leroy Anderson’s iconic Sleigh Ride—a beloved holiday classic guaranteed to bring smiles and cheers. And for our Springfield audiences, the magic continues in the historic Illinois State Library, offering an intimate and distinctive setting that makes this holiday tradition come alive.
Holiday Pops in the Heartland is more than a concert—it’s a sparkling celebration for all ages. Come for the music—stay for the magic. Bring the kids, invite the grandparents, and share in a tradition that will warm your heart and lift your spirits. Make this the highlight of your holiday season!
Taichi Fukumura, Music Director | Mikaela Bennett, Soprano
Bloomington-Normal Youth Symphony - Bloomington-Normal Performance Only
Listen LIVE! Engage Your Mind.
Tickets: $70 / $50 / $30
Students: $10
Important Ticket Buying Information:
- Bloomington-Normal: Tickets may be purchased online, by phone, or in person through the ISU Center for the Performing Arts Ticket Office. We encourage you to buy early to not miss out on this holiday favorite!
- Springfield: Tickets may be purchased online, by phone, or in person through the UIS Ticket Office. Tickets will be available ONLINE the day of the concert but NOT available in person at the Illinois State Library because it is a state office.
Taichi Fukumura is the Music Director of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra (ISO) and the current Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra appointed by Franz Welser-Möst. A rising Japanese American conductor acclaimed for his dynamic stage presence and musical finesse, Fukumura is the Second Prize Winner of The Mahler Competition 2023, and a four-time recipient of the Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award.
Recent and upcoming international engagements include guest conducting debuts with the Bamberg Symphony and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony. Fukumura will lead concerts with The Cleveland Orchestra this season as part of his new position, including a collaboration with Itzhak Perlman on tour in Miami. He also returned to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra as guest conductor, where he previously conducted over 110 concerts as an Assistant Conductor appointed by Robert Spano. Other recent guest debuts include the Utah Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, Eugene Symphony, Delaware Symphony, and Colorado Springs Philharmonic.
As the Music Director of the Illinois Symphony, Fukumura has led an ongoing initiative to broaden the repertoire of the orchestra. Focusing on well-balanced, impactful programming, he has highlighted the work of living composers including Brian Raphael Nabors, Christopher Theofanidis, Stacy Garrop, and Gala Flagello. The 2025/26 season includes the world premiere of a new work by Michelle Isaac, commissioned by the ISO.
Fukumura served as the Assistant Conductor of the Chicago Sinfonietta where he previously received mentorship from Music Director Mei-Ann Chen as a Freeman Conducting Fellow. He also returned to the Aspen Music Festival as guest assistant conductor following a summer as a conducting fellow and was invited by Barbara Hannigan to assist at the Munich Philharmonic and the Musikkollegium Winterthur in Switzerland.
Born in Tokyo, Taichi Fukumura spent his childhood in Boston and began music studies at age three on the violin. He holds a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from Boston University, and both Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University under the mentorship of Victor Yampolsky. He is a recipient of the Concert Artists Guild Richard S. Weinert Award. Fukumura is fluent in both English and Japanese.
Mikaela Bennett is a celebrated singer and actress praised for her artistic versatility on stage and in concert halls around the world. A recent recipient of the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, she is equally at home performing with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall or starring in West Side Story (Maria) at the BBC Proms. Highlights include: her solo recital debut at Alice Tully Hall; premieres with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony; debuts with Lyric Opera of Kansas City in The Sound of Music (Maria); with MasterVoices at Carnegie Hall in The Grapes of Wrath (Rosasharn); and, Handel’s Israel in Egypt.
In the 2025-2026 season, she makes her LA Opera debut in the world premiere of Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Hildegard (Richardis von Stade), followed by a return to the Prototype Festival in the same production. She also returns to Bard SummerScape for Courtney Bryan’s Suddenly Last Summer (Catherine) and debuts at Emerald City Music in a solo recital featuring the West Coast premiere of a new Molly Joyce song cycle. In December 2025, she appears in Holiday Pops programs with the Grand Rapids, Toronto, and Edmonton Symphony Orchestras.
In the summer of 2025, Bennett returned to The Glimmerglass Festival for the world premiere of The House on Mango Street (Esperanza). At the BBC Proms, Bennett starred in West Side Story (Maria) with the John Wilson Orchestra and returned for music from the Warner Bros. film studio. She has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Wayne Shorter’s Aurora, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the New York Philharmonic with Leonard Slatkin, and The Cleveland Orchestra in Zodiac Suite under Jader Bignamini. She premiered Michael Tilson Thomas’s Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind with the San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony, and New World Symphony. She has frequently collaborated with conductor Ted Sperling, including in Let ’Em Eat Cake (Mary Wintergreen) at Carnegie Hall, and appeared in Bernstein on Broadway at the Kennedy Center. She also returned to Carnegie Hall with MasterVoices for A Joyful Noise with Take 6.