Sandra Yeh, Chief Medical Officer of Prairie Eye Center WINS the Celebrity Conductor Challenge, a fundraiser hosted by the Illinois Symphony Guild of Springfield
Six outstanding celebrity community members competed in the Celebrity Conductor Challenge hosted by the Illinois Symphony Guild of Springfield. This unique fundraiser encouraged the community to make donations in honor of their candidate with the winner being the one who raised the most support for the ISO.
The votes are in, and the winner of the Celebrity Conductor Challenge is Sandra Yeh, founder and CMO of Prairie Eye Center! Dr. Yeh will make her debut with the ISO at the Holiday Pops in the Heartland concert on Friday, December 13th conducting Leroy Anderson’s holiday classic Sleigh Ride.
The challenge raised more than $19,500 to support the award-winning education programs of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra.
The other candidates who were vying to step onto the podium were Michelle Eccles, local host of Morning Edition on NPR Illinois and Public Relations Manager at Horace Mann; Jennifer Gill, District 186 Superintendent; James Greenwald, DDS, a dentist and Springfield Choral Society member; Kathryn Harris, retired Director of Library Services at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum; and Erin Hascup, PhD, Director of the Dale & Deborah Smith Center for Alzheimer’s Research & Treatment at SIU School of Medicine.
“We greatly appreciate the dedication to the ISO of our conductor challengers and all their friends in the community who supported them and the outreach efforts of the Illinois Symphony Guild of Springfield,” Guild President Dale Rogers said.
Listen LIVE! to your Illinois Symphony Orchestra and catch Sandra Yeh’s debut as Celebrity Conductor on Friday, December 13, 2024 at 7:30 PM at the UIS Performing Arts Center. Order your tickets and we’ll see you there! Tickets may be purchased in Springfield through the UIS Ticket Office at 217-206-6160 or online at ilsymphony.org/SPHolidayPops. Single ticket prices range from $10 for students (11 & under) to $70 for premium seating. Senior and group discounts are also available.
Holiday Pops in the Heartland is sponsored by season sponsors The Landmark Automotive Group and Debra & Daniel Brownstone, M.D., and concert sponsor US Bank.
The Illinois Symphony Orchestra is central Illinois’ largest professional orchestra serving over 35,000 patrons in the communities of Bloomington-Normal, Springfield and the surrounding region with symphony orchestra, chamber orchestra, and Concerts for Kids series in each community. In addition to concert performances, the Orchestra’s music education and outreach programs serve pre-K and elementary schools through the Itsy Arts and Music Matters education programs and reach middle schools, high schools, universities, community organizations and senior centers through guest artist residencies and musician and ensemble performances. The ISO also has an active Community Engagement Series. The Illinois Symphony Orchestra has a budget of approximately $1.5 million.
In July 2020, the ISO acquired the Sangamon Valley Youth Symphony (SVYS) organization that was started in the early 1970s by parents, music teachers and musicians to keep string programs and youth orchestra in Springfield and surrounding communities following the elimination of all school orchestra programs. Now, the Illinois Symphony Youth Orchestras (ISYO) programs consist of Starter and Junior Strings, Preparatory Orchestra, Concert Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra serving over 150 students. The ISO also has a partnership in education and community engagement (PEACE) with the UIS-School of Music and Illinois State University’s Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts and School of Music.
Additional information about the Illinois Symphony Orchestra is available at www.ilsymphony.org.
The ISO is partially funded by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.
