SALINA, KANSAS — In four seasons at the podium, Music Director and Conductor Yaniv Segal has guided the Salina Symphony from a strong regional ensemble into a fully professional orchestra performing at a level few cities of its size attempt. This season the orchestra will perform most concerts at the Stiefel Theatre, with additional appearances at Theatre Salina’s Sunflower Financial Theatre, on the grounds of the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, at the McPherson Opera House, at Hutchinson’s Fox Theatre, and at the annual gala at the Salina Country Club.
A standard concert places more than 50 musicians on stage, and this year’s season opener swelled to well over a hundred, including vocalists. The goal, Segal says, is not scale for its own sake but cohesion. Rehearsals are collaborative and focused. “Rehearsals aren’t for learning your part,” he notes. “They’re for learning how you fit with everyone else.”
The ensemble is a purposeful mix. Many players are educators, band directors, private teachers, and university faculty who maintain active performing careers. The majority travel from Manhattan, Wichita, Hutchinson, McPherson, and Kansas City. While America’s largest orchestras operate with six-figure salaries, Segal is blunt about Salina’s edge: the arts here are healthier than a city of our size would suggest, thanks to broad community support and a clear commitment to compensating talent fairly. Ticket sales do not cover the full cost of orchestral production, which is why endowments, grants, and local philanthropy remain essential.
Education is the throughline. The Symphony invests in two youth orchestras, jazz ensembles, a youth choir, school partnerships that bolster USD 305 orchestra programs, and group string lessons designed to make instruments more accessible. The goals are outreach and the creation of a genuine pipeline, with local students who hear the orchestra, study an instrument, and eventually join the region’s musical life. As Segal puts it, “You have to hear these instruments live to understand the richness. There’s no substitute for that.”
Audiences are responding. Like many arts organizations, the Symphony saw subscription habits shift after the pandemic as buyers moved to single tickets. Subscriptions are now trending back up, single-ticket sales are way up, and a recent buy-one-get-one offer brought a wave of new subscribers. The first concert of this season posted the highest ticket sales in Symphony history, excluding blockbuster specials such as The Nutcracker or Disney collaborations.
If you are symphony-curious, the Dec. 13–14 Christmas Festival offers a festive introduction. A family concert on Saturday, Jan. 24, at 1 p.m. provides an easy on-ramp for kids and first-time attendees. From there, the organization points families toward private music lessons and youth programs, reinforcing the idea that orchestral music is not a museum piece; it is a living practice you can join.
Behind the curtain, the routines are human. Some musicians cannot perform on a full stomach; others prefer a small pre-concert snack. Segal prefers 30 to 60 minutes of quiet, stretching, and focus before stepping under the lights. He has been on stage since age eight, and the stage still feels like home.
The case for the Symphony is pragmatic as well as artistic. Performances bring visitors downtown, elevate Salina’s profile, and inject energy into the local economy. Segal echoed a line often shared by Salina Arts and Humanities Director Brad Anderson: the city continues to “punch above its weight.” Segal frames it this way: art builds on what came before — rock, pop, jazz, and folk — and orchestral music sits inside that continuum, not apart from it.
If you have not heard the Salina Symphony recently, you are missing what the community has built together: a professional orchestra with ambition, momentum, and an open invitation.
Tickets, schedules, and youth program information: salinasymphony.org
