The Idaho Falls Symphony has announced the retirement of its music director, Dr. Thomas Heuser. He’s served for 15 years and will finish his tenure after the 2025-2026 season.
Before coming to Idaho Falls, Heuser was in Germany coming out of his program for orchestral conducting when he saw that the Symphony was looking for a music director. He was chosen out of 150 applicants and started working in the 2010-2011 season.
“I was primarily a piano player but studying composing and so is writing my own music for student ensembles to perform and as I was coaching musicians on how to play my own music, it just seemed like the right place for me as a musician, because I love to think about the music as a composer, it was my music in that case, but then to work with musicians on how to play it and how to bring out the emotions in the music and how to give it the right kind of performance energy and those sorts of things,” he said.
Heuser says he's enjoyed so many concerts over 15 years, especially when the symphony performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Mozart's Requiem. He also fondly remembers performances from Holly Mulcahy, the soloist for Rosa Sonora, and Mark O'Connor, the American violinist.
The 2025-2026 season is the symphony’s 76th season, running consecutively including during the COVID-19 pandemic. This season includes a program with violinist Simone Porter, who will play the Beethoven Violin Concerto. The symphony will also play the “Home Alone” score to the movie during the holidays.
Heuser says the symphony has come a long way in his 15 years and he hopes the upward trajectory continues.
“Hopefully, that is either a legacy or something that can continue, a continuation of my time, is that that level of professionalism that the musicians are expecting and bringing continues and that we continue to raise the bar on the quality of the performances,” he said.
See the announcement and future season music performances at Idaho Falls Symphony.