Roger Kalia

Roger Kalia is a conductor who leads the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra across a wide range of programs, from Brahms symphonies and Handel's Messiah to Star Wars scores and holiday pops concerts. Listeners in Evansville and Jasper, Indiana can expect a season that mixes core orchestral repertoire with accessible, audience-friendly programming.

Across this season, Kalia moves between weighty symphonic works and lighter fare, suggesting a conductor comfortable pacing an entire program for variety rather than specializing narrowly. The classics concerts pair full symphonies, Haydn, Brahms, Beethoven, with shorter, punchier pieces like overtures and film marches, so expect contrasts in scale within a single evening. The Halloween and holiday programs (Night on Bald Mountain, Danse macabre, Harry Potter and Star Wars suites, sing-along carols) point to a conductor who treats orchestral pops as its own craft, keeping tempos brisk and transitions clean for a mixed audience. The Messiah performances and the Windows of Heaven program of sacred vocal works (Mozart, Poulenc, Respighi) show he also leads choral-orchestral repertoire. Concerto appearances, Brahms's Double Concerto, Sandoval's trumpet concerto, Grieg's Piano Concerto, indicate regular work partnering soloists.