The Triumphant Return of Indie Orchestra

Well, that is one for the books. After nearly five years of setbacks by Covid, budget shortfalls, lack of suitable venue, and other difficulties, Indie Orchestra roared back into rare form last night. In front of a sold-out audience, our orchestra, our choral singers, our house band (Thor & Friends), and our incredible guests (Daniel Fears, promqueen, Caleb de Casper, & A Giant Dog) brought the goods and threw it down so hard.

Unwound Sound at Indie Orchestra 2.1.24 (photo: David Brendan Hall)

Our amazing partners at KUTX 98.9 plugged the hell out of the show, and the Austin PBS host crew and staff was an absolute dream to work with. Our beneficiary partner — Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM) was beautifully supportive, sending one of their representatives to help intro the show (alongside our amazing MC, KUTX’s Laurie Gallardo), and the proceeds from ticket sales helped raise over $2000 for the beautiful work HAAM does for our Central Texas musician community.

SO many thanks to each and every of these incredible humans. While I not long ago feared that Indie Orchestra might never rise from the ashes again, this team combined forces to create the very best I/O performance yet!

Unwound Sound performance 2.1.24

Many thanks also to KUTX 98.9 and KOOP radio for the interviews (the latter interview with Tracey Schultz may be found here), Do512 for listing us as the #1 event of the week, Axios Austin for the swell article, the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division for underwriting a large chunk of the show. And — of course — many thanks to everyone who made it out to the sold-out performance.

KUTX 98.9 will be streaming the audio of the show on Tuesday, 8pm (Central), if you want to tune in and experience this life-affirming event. We’ll soon also have the Austin PBS video to share, which I’ll add here once it’s available (2.24.24 update: it’s here!).

I’m so tired I can barely move, but the gratitude in my heart is absolutely overflowing. With so many professional and personal setbacks over the past few years, this project has been an incredible agent of healing for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Gallery photos by David Brendan Hall