Welcome to the Anderson Center. To enhance your enjoyment and that of the other patrons at the performance, we ask you to observe the following:
- Patrons are welcome to bring one water bottle to the show. No other food or drink is allowed inside the theater.
- In case of an emergency, please follow an usher to the nearest exit and proceed according to their instructions.
- Please turn off all electronic devices during the performance.
- If you need to leave the theater during the performance, for safety reasons and to minimize distractions, an usher will escort you.
- Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the house manager.
- RF hearing-assistance headsets are available. Please speak to an usher if you require one.
- Photography, audio, and video recording of the performance are strictly prohibited.
- Smoking, including electronic cigarettes, is not permitted.
- Restroom facilities are located in the Chamber Hall lobby and behind the Box Office.
Indigo Girls
Sunday, May 3, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Osterhout Concert Theater
Anderson Center for the Performing Arts
Binghamton University
Performing with the Binghamton University Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jingqi Zhu.
Program
Power of Two
Damo
Woodsong
Become You
Come a Long Way
Compromise
Ghost
Howl at the Moon
Galileo
-INTERMISSION-
Chickenman
Change My Heart
Yoke
Mystery
Go
Love of Our Lives
Kid Fears
Closer to Fine
This performance lasts approximately two and a half hours, including a 20-minute intermission. Program subject to change.
Director’s Note
Welcome to the Anderson Center for the Performing Arts.
Tonight’s performance is a special one—not only because we are joined by the Indigo Girls, but because of the collaboration you see on stage. Sharing this performance with the Binghamton University Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Jingqi Zhu, our students are part of a truly meaningful artistic experience.
At the Anderson Center, we believe the arts are at their most powerful when they bring people together—students, artists, and community. Opportunities like this allow our students to learn alongside professional musicians, bridging the gap between the classroom and the stage.
We are proud to create moments like this, and we are grateful to share them with you.
Thank you for being here and for supporting the arts at Binghamton University.
— Marnie Wrighter
Interim Director, Anderson Center for the Performing Arts
About the Indigo Girls
Across four decades, 16 studio albums, and over 15 million records sold, Indigo Girls continue to blaze the trail for generations of Queer artists in the mainstream. The Grammy-winning duo of Emily Saliers and Amy Ray began their careers in clubs and bars around their native Atlanta, GA, amidst a blossoming alternative music scene before signing to Epic Records in 1988. Indigo Girls’ eponymous major label debut sold over two million copies under the power of singles “Closer to Fine” and “Kid Fears” and introduced the duo’s signature harmonies and powerful, sophisticated songs to a dedicated, enduring global audience. Indigo Girls was the first of six consecutive Gold and/or Platinum-certified albums. Their latest record, Look Long, is a stirring and eclectic collection of songs that finds the duo reunited in the studio with their strongest backing band to date. “We joke about being old, but what is old when it comes to music? We’re still a bar band at heart,” says Saliers. “While our lyrics and writing approach may change, our passion for music feels the same as it did when we were 25 years old.”
Committed and uncompromising activists, Saliers and Ray work on issues like racial justice and reproductive rights (Project Say Something), immigration reform (El Refugio), LGBTQ advocacy, education (Imagination Library), death penalty reform, and Native American rights (First Peoples Fund).
“As time has gone on, our audience has become more expansive and diverse, giving me a sense of joy,” says Saliers. Recently, “Closer to Fine” featured prominently in Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster film Barbie and introduced Indigo Girls’ music to a new generation of listeners. Released in 2024, their critically-acclaimed documentary Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After All (directed by Alexandria Bombach) blends 40 years of home movies, raw film archive, and intimate present-day verité into a heartfelt career retrospective. A New York Times Critic’s Pick, the documentary premiered opening night at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023 and went on to screen at SXSW, Tribeca Film Festival, and Hot Docs before releasing to Netflix.
While Rolling Stone describes them as “ideal duet partners,” Indigo Girls’ live performances aren’t so much duets as they are community experiences—massive group singalongs together with their audience. To hear those collective voices raise into one, singing along and overpowering the band itself, one realizes the importance Indigo Girls’ music has in this moment. In our often-terrifying present, we are all in search of a daily refuge, a stolen hour or two, to engage with something that brings us joy, perspective, or maybe just calm. As one bar band once put it, “We go to the doctor, we go to the mountains…we go to the Bible, we go through the work out.” For millions, they go to the Indigo Girls: a creative partnership certain of its bearings, forging a way forward.
About the Conductor
Jingqi Zhu is a conductor and pianist currently serving as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Orchestral and Instrumental Studies at Binghamton University. She has led professional orchestras across the United States and abroad, including the MÁV Symphony Orchestra (Hungary), Bodensee Philharmonie (Germany), The Dallas Opera Orchestra, Spokane Symphony, and Syracuse Orchestra, among others. Zhu has also served as Music Director Fellow with the Spokane Symphony, Conducting Fellow at the National Orchestral Institute + Festival and Assistant Conductor of Quad City Symphony Orchestra.
Equally at home in the operatic world, Zhu has assisted and conducted numerous opera productions. As an alumna from The Dallas Opera’s prestigious Hart Institute for Women Conductors in 2024, Zhu was invited as the assistant conductor and pianist for the company’s mainstage productions of La Traviata (2024) and Carmen (2025). After being named the inaugural Martha R. and Preston A. Peak Fellow at The Dallas Opera, Zhu was invited to conduct The Little Prince Family Opera in February 2026. In 2027, she will lead the world premiere of the opera TEA commissioned by the Hawaii Opera Theatre.
Binghamton University Symphony Orchestra
Violin I
Salome Lomidze
Yuri Hatazaki
Durward Entrekin
Bobby Baldwin
Misha Chen
Deirdre Williams
Noelle Kay
Chell Westby
Lujia Gao
Joshua Lee
Dalia Mullens
Cara Raymont
George Boskovski
Aine Hassett
Violin II
Colin McCann
Daniel Byon
Angelo Pacheco
Jeet Shahani
Renee Arana
Cristina Campomanes
Aryeh Lichtenfeld
Sarah Shapiro
Anthony Balaci
Amelia Ellison
Katelyn Schaefer
Kira Novak
Viola
Kiroto Middleton
Devin Dantuono
Erick Morales
Sara Kotz
Jake Lomando
Ava Ng
Evan Sternquist
Cliff Anderson
Chloe Deshaies
Austin Waldron
Amalia Heinz
Cello
Liam Sullivan
Alec Lau
Linus Soong
Alexander Sperrazza
Arjun Mouron
Gregory de Dios
Nathan Slisher
Conor Ng
Alyssa Gonzalez
Austin Baringer
Julianna Vailakis
Bass
Kyan Chbat
Ruby Mattes
Lucas Portuese
Rhianna Jensen
Miles Peters
Ellery McClenathan
Tate Wishrad
Griffin Heatley
Lia Levin
Flute
Aria Landman
Marin Penner
Emily Dimock
Gene Lee
Oboe
Maximillian Shen
Sophia Aparicio
Clarinet
Anderson Wang
Luca Vukelic*
Bassoon
Melinda Lewis*
Alessandra DeAlbuquerque
Horn
Samuel Pikofsky-Christiansen
Olivia Finkbeiner
Emily Goldstein
Xavier Beelders
Trumpet
Paul Barber
Tom Betz
Dexter Navage
Trombone
Julian Pritchard
Nathan Burger
Cian Young
Tuba
Keith Alcius*
Timpani
Elaina Smales*
Percussion
Joel Smales*
Brianna Chan
Andrew DeRose
Harp
McKayla Burke
*Guest Artists
Special Thanks
Special thanks to Dean Celia Klin; Jingqi Zhu, Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Orchestral and Instrumental Studies; Robert Manners, Concert & Facilities Manager, Department of Music; and the dedicated Anderson Center staff—Chris Bodnarczuk, Marketing Director; June Christensen, Box Office Manager; Nathan Elsener, Assistant Technical Director; Robert Fischer, Assistant Box Office Manager/Marketing/Operations; Kirsten Knox, Director of Operations and House Operations; Karin Phillips, Assistant House Manager and Education Coordinator; and Dan Sonnen, Technical Director—who make evenings like this possible and truly are the best team anyone could ask for.
We also extend our appreciation to Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, Tim Fox of AMP, and their team for their collaboration and partnership.
Support the Anderson Center
If this performance has inspired you, please consider making a tax-deductible gift to the Anderson Center to help us continue this work.
The Anderson Center for the Performing Arts is committed to presenting engaging performances and providing impactful learning opportunities for students and the broader community. We are thankful for the generosity of those who support this mission.
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