Orchestra recording Thunder soundtrack

For the first time in Thunder Over Louisville's history, the Kentucky Derby Festival and the Louisville Orchestra are collaborating to record the soundtrack for the fireworks show, which is slated for April 23.

In the Brown Theatre lobby Tuesday morning, the muffled sound of musicians warming up on their instruments sounded as Kentucky Derby Festival president and CEO Mike Berry and Louisville Orchestra executive director Andrew Kipe announced the project.

This will be the earliest that Zambelli Internationale, the company that designs and presents the fireworks show, will have music for Thunder Over Louisville, Berry said.

WDRB-TV will broadcast the 2016 music and the show as will SummitMedia’s Lite 106.9.

While the Thunder fireworks show is choreographed to an original soundtrack each year, this will be the first time the music is being performed by one artistic entity.

Berry said he and Kipe began working on the logistics to make this happen not long after Kipe took his position with the orchestra two years ago.

Inside the theater Tuesday, the musicians were getting ready to record the soundtrack as part of a two-day recording session. During the rehearsal, Teddy Abrams, the orchestra’s music director, led the musicians in playing excerpts from John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” “When You Wish Upon a Star” and John Williams’ themes from “Star Wars” and “E.T.”

The recording will include these excerpts as well as passages from more than 40 other works including classical pieces by Holst, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Mozart, and songs by My Morning Jacket, Katy Perry, Michael Jackson and other pop stars. “My Old Kentucky Home” is also in the mix.

CJ Arts, entertainment news in your inbox

University of Louisville School of Music’s choral ensemble, The Collegiate Chorale led by Kent Hatteberg, will perform with the orchestra on the soundtrack.

Kipe said the collaboration does not bring  any extra expenses to the orchestra’s $6.7 million budget. Berry said costs will amount to less than 1 percent of the event’s nearly $1.2 million budget that will be covered in large part by sponsors.

“This is an added benefit (for sponsors),” Berry said.

Attendance is expected at more than 600,000 people, said Jim Welch, board president and Brown-Forman Corp. vice chairman, during the conference.

“It will certainly reach audiences we wouldn’t ordinarily reach,” the orchestra’s Kipe said.

Reaching new audiences has been a goal since Abrams was named to the position nearly two years ago. That goal has prompted the orchestra to launch a series of neighborhood concerts and play at Louisville Waterfront Park for the city’s Fourth of July Celebration with other local musicians to a crowd of nearly 35,000.

Season gives classical music modern meaning

The orchestra aims to also bring in more subscribers to it season concerts, and recent numbers suggest that the organization is doing just that.

This season, the number of subscribers to its classics and coffee concerts is 2,022 compared to last season’s 1,745 subscribers — a 16 percent increase. Over the two seasons,  the budget has been increased by more than $600,000.

The developments are a welcome change that comes nearly five years after the orchestra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy that was followed by labor disputes and a dark season. The budget prior to the orchestra's 2010 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing was $6.9 million.

Reach reporter Elizabeth Kramer at and ekramer@courier-journal.com. Follow her on Twitter @arts_bureau on Twitter and on Facebook at Elizabeth Kramer - Arts Writer.