Music for Breathing, Music for Joy

The Elkhart County Symphony’s exuberant Season 78 finale, “Exhale & Celebrate,” includes inventive works composed by—and featuring—guest soloist Caitlin Edwards and a performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol by the Symphony

On May 17, 2026, at The Lerner Theatre in Downtown Elkhart, the Elkhart County Symphony presents its 2025-26 season finale, “Exhale & Celebrate.” The Season 78 finale features guest soloist Caitlin Edwards on violin and presents a repertoire including music from the guest soloist’s album Exhale, as well as the Symphony performing Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol and additional orchestral works.

Ms. Edwards, a violinist, arranger, recording artist, and teacher based in Chicago, began her musical journey at age eight through the Music Opportunity Program in Birmingham, Alabama. A classically-trained violinist, Ms. Edwards credits gospel, jazz, hip-hop, and neo-soul as her musical inspirations. She received degrees in Violin Performance from the University of Louisville (B.M.) and DePaul University (M.M.), studying with J. Patrick Rafferty and Janet Sung.

Disrupting the status quo

Currently a mentor with the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative, a program designed to offer resources to talented Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) youth pursuing careers in classical music, Ms. Edwards’ musical ambition extends beyond herself. Having realized some of her own dreams—including winning numerous orchestral awards and earning the opportunity to perform and record behind artists such as John Legend, Earth Wind and Fire, Lauryn Hill, Stewart Copeland, Common, Lucky Daye, Yolanda Adams, and India Arie—her ultimate goal is to help educate and inspire the next generation of young Black musicians, and to see the voices and faces of Black people normalized in traditionally monopolized spaces through increased visibility and disruption of the status quo.

Ms. Edwards is a 2023 Sphinx MPower Artist Grant recipient, a 2022 Esteemed Artist Award recipient from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and a 2021 3Arts/Walder Foundation Awardee. She has performed with the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra,

Nairobi Philharmonic, Grant Park Festival Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, National Repertory Orchestra, the Chicago Philharmonic, Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago, and the ReCollective Orchestra in New York City and Los Angeles, and was also a recipient of the Rising Star Award from the Gateways Music Festival. In addition, Ms. Edwards has received Grammy certificates for recordings on Disney’s The Lion King with the Re-Collective Orchestra and for albums by John Legend and PJ Morton.

Her acclaimed 2021 debut solo album, Exhale, fuses the sound of classical music with the soul and harmonies of gospel and neo-soul. The Elkhart County Symphony is honored and pleased to welcome Ms. Edwards and collaborate to perform some of her innovative and inspiring work at “Exhale & Celebrate.”

Five joyful movements

Capriccio espagnol is a five-movement orchestral suite, based on Spanish folk melodies, composed in 1887 by the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. It premiered in St. Petersburg in 1887, conducted by Rimsky-Korsakov, during an October performance by the Imperial Orchestra.

The composer intended to write the work for a solo violin with orchestra, but eventually decided that a purely orchestral work would better suit its lively and energetic melodies. Often praised for the strength of its orchestration, Capriccio espagnol features a large percussion section and many special techniques and articulations—for example, in the fourth movement, when the violinists, violists, and cellists are directed to imitate guitars.

Rimsky-Korsakov was considered a master of orchestration and was a member of the group of influential, nationalistic Russian composers known as The Five. His best-known orchestral compositions—including Capriccio espagnol, the Russian Easter Overture, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade—are staples of the classical music repertoire, and the composer was thought to have influenced an entire generation of younger composers and musicians during his many years as an educator. Rimsky-Korsakov, therefore, is largely thought of as the principal architect of what the classical music public considers the “Russian style.”