Silence swept the room as Lamar Grear, the Gary Civic Symphony Orchestra’s new conductor, walked onto the stage with his baton under his arm. His footsteps echoed as he took the podium, turned from the audience and opened his score, scanning the musicians before him.
The house lights dimmed inside the Main Stage Theatre at Indiana University Northwest as the orchestra’s members adjusted their sheet music. Holiday colors glowed on a screen behind them, setting a festive backdrop for the annual holiday concert.
Grear raised his arms: a silent cue that it was time for the show to begin. With a motion as swift as a wizard casting a spell, the opening notes of “A Christmas Festival” flowed through the concert hall.
For nearly 85 years, the Gary Civic Symphony Orchestra has been a fixture of the city’s cultural life. Now led by a new conductor, the orchestra is entering a new chapter as it works to sustain its legacy and expand its presence in Gary.
The orchestra was formed after conductor and musician Arthur Zack placed an advertisement in the Gary Post-Tribune seeking musicians interested in creating a symphony orchestra in Gary. It gave its first performance on Dec. 7, 1941. Today, the orchestra includes more than 30 local musicians.
Grear, 38, has been a part of the music world his whole life: from his dad’s side, where his uncle has his own gospel group, to his dad, who plays the drums, to his mom’s side, which has a long history of songwriters, singers, and musicians.
“When I came along, music was just there. It was a natural thing for me,” Grear said. His parents, both Gary natives, raised him in Houston, where he first picked up the flute.
The journey to Gary
Throughout his life, Grear spent time in Gary and even performed with the orchestra a few times in the late 2000s before attending school.
He attended community college in Houston with the intention of transferring to a university closer to Northwest Indiana to continue his studies. Those plans were delayed when his grandfather fell ill, and Grear helped care for him alongside his aunt. Later, he had the opportunity to attend Concordia University before transferring to Valparaiso University to study music composition and performance. About two years ago, he returned to performing with the orchestra.
Grear said becoming a conductor was not part of his plan at the time. He wanted to get his toes in the water before making that leap.
“I love composing music. I love to create music. That’s my passion, and that’s where my heart is,” he said enthusiastically. “My second passion is performing music. I am a flutist, so I like to perform.”
After graduating, he planned to compose music and perform professionally with the orchestra. For a time, that is what he did until Michael Carson stepped down as conductor earlier this year. A longtime saxophone player and a previous music teacher from Emerson School for Visual and Performing Arts, Carson still plays in the orchestra.
During a meeting where everyone discussed who would be the next conductor, Grear said he was initially opposed to taking the role. There were plenty of teachers and other qualified musicians who could have filled the role, he said.
“If nobody steps up there, I guess I’ll do it,” Grear recalled, not knowing at the time how much truth he put into his own words.
In June, he hosted his first show as the principal conductor and composer. As one of the youngest in the orchestra’s history, it’s been a process that has made him grow as a person and musician.
“The growth that I’m having with the orchestra is a big deal for me because it’s pushing me. This is out of my comfort zone,” he said.
But through his work, he’s doing that for members of the orchestra, too.
Welcoming in the new conductor
Coming in as one of the youngest conductors and among the youngest in the room, Grear faces the challenge of directing people with years of experience over him.
“Decades,” said Karob Jackson, principal violist for the orchestra, when asked how long he’s been a part of the organization. “I was surprised to know that we had a professional orchestra, right here in Gary,” he said.
He grew up playing the cello until he went to college, where he decided to switch to the viola. Born and raised in Gary, he had never heard of the organization and, by chance, decided to walk down and speak with the team about auditioning.
He first auditioned in 1993 and played in the Christmas concert that year, his first with the orchestra. He’s seen the orchestra through several stages to where it is now.
Unlike Jackson, Donna Robinson is a newer member of the orchestra. A flutist like Grear, she’s played the instrument since she was a child.
“For one, you can hear a flute,” she said, laughing, referring to what made her join the orchestra. After a member fell ill, she filled in temporarily, and now two years later, she remains a member of the orchestra while also teaching music in Chicago Public Schools.
Both have seen the power of music and where it can take them. Having traveled across the country and overseas, they’ve seen the doors that their passion has opened for them. And under Grear, they’re excited about what the future holds, especially for the orchestra.
“I would like to see the orchestra grow and be a full-size orchestra and do all the things that big orchestras do,” Grear said.
For orchestra members, Grear’s vision signals a shift in both ambition and direction.
“His energy and level of innovation is so fresh,” Jackson said. “He pushes us past what we [know] so that we can no longer be on autopilot.”
That vision is reflected in how Grear leads the orchestra.
“He’s very flexible and open to suggestions,” Robinson said of working with the new conductor. “He gives us criticisms, but he takes them as well.”
Keeping the legacy alive
An air of uncertainty has spread among many in the orchestra as they get older, as they wonder what will happen to the orchestra’s legacy.
“Because we’re getting older, we need to replenish the supply to keep it going,” said Robinson, a member of the orchestra.
For many involved in the orchestra, Grear included, they hope to connect with the youth to bring in the next generation of orchestra members. That includes cultivating that same love of music.
The Gary Youth Music School, supported by the Gary Historical and Cultural Society, offers free and low-cost instrument lessons for Gary students in grades 3 through 9. Both Grear and Jackson teach in the program.
“It’s a full circle for me because I learned it here and I wanna teach it here,” Jackson said.
“I would like that program to grow to the point where students who already know how to play an instrument can join and have a youth orchestra there as well,” Grear added.
