Lincoln’s Symphony to pair Beethoven’s Ninth with new work based on composer’s “Heiligenstadt Testament”

On April 22, Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra in Nebraska will perform the orchestral world premiere of Jake Runestad’s choral work A Silence Haunts Me, with text based on Beethoven’s “Heiligenstadt Testament,” the composer’s 1802 letter to his brothers about his increasing deafness and his artistic destiny. Runestad’s work was originally commissioned by the American Choral Directors Association and the Raymond W. Brock Foundation for a 2019 performance in Kansas City, Missouri, in a version for chorus and piano. Lincoln’s Symphony Music Director Edward Polochick will lead the concert at the Lied Center for the Performing Arts, which also will feature Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Abendmusik Chorus, Doane University Choir, Doane Collegiate Chorale, Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir, and vocal soloists.