Review: Milwaukee Symphony and Indigo Girls in Concert

In Sunday’s (4/21) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Piet Levy writes, “The Indigo Girls are some of the most road-tested artists, but the stakes for this gig were different, with Amy Ray and fellow Girls singer-songwriter Emily Saliers performing at a sold-out Bradley Symphony Center supported by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra [on Saturday]. Nerves were understandable, but of course Indigo Girls, as Ray and Saliers made clear Saturday, were in great hands with the MSO, under the guidance of the orchestra’s new assistant conductor Ryan Tani. And the MSO in turn was in great hands with the seminal folk rockers, a year shy of their 40th anniversary, who led them through 18 gems across two acts and 95 minutes. For the diehard fans that filled the concert hall … Indigo Girls with the Milwaukee Symphony may have become their favorite combination. The symphonic accompaniments, smartly arranged by Sean O’Loughlin and Stephen Barber, consistently let Ray and Saliers’ voices and words lead the way. There seminal folk rockers, a year shy of their 40th anniversary, who led them through 18 gems across two acts and 95 were exceptions, like for ‘Yoke,’ with the suspenseful, Bernard Herrmann-inspired strings … Lovely as the symphony was, effusive as Ray and Saliers were, it was the crowd’s passionate singing that owned the finale.”