Submitted photo / Konstantin Gribov Music Director Erik Ochsner will conduct the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra for its Ignite the Night concert.

Youngstown is planning an evening of orchestral music, Ohio Players, Vindys and fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July and America250.

Sunday’s Ignite the Night will feature a free outdoor concert by the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra at Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre with the last 20 minutes of the performance accompanied by a fireworks display choreographed to the music.

Gates open at 6 p.m., and the festivities start with a presentation for the latest Youngstown Walk of Fame honorees, Billy Beck and Rick Ward, longtime members of the funk/soul act Ohio Players, whose hits included “Fire,” “Love Rollercoaster” and “Skin Tight.”

The duo also will kick off the music portion of the evening performing as the Beck Ward Project.

YSO Music Director and Conductor Erik Ochsner said he was approached in January with the idea of taking part in Ignite the Night.

“I was really excited, because this is my first July 4th concert that I’ve ever conducted,” he said. “I’ve been to a lot of them over the years. We were very close family friends to the music director of the Cincinnati Pops, named Erich Kunzel. I even sent my program of music to my high school music theory teacher, and he said Erich Kunzel would be proud, so that meant a lot to me.”

That program was created knowing that the holiday timing, the outdoor setting, the free admission and the fireworks finale would attract a different audience compared to the orchestra’s performances at Stambaugh and Powers auditoriums.

He wanted to emphasize American composers, but he also wanted the music to be accessible for non-classical audiences, so he programmed Leonard Bernstein’s Three Dance Episodes from “On the Town,” Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” and George Gershwin’s “Summertime” from “Porgy & Bess” and “Strike Up the Band.”

“Knowing it’s July 4th, I wanted to do, of course, ‘Star Spangled Banner,'” Ochsner said. “We have a lot of veterans in the neighborhood, and July 4th is one opportunity we can honor them. So that’s why I really wanted to play the salute to the Armed Forces, and I’ll be calling out the names of the branches and ask people to stand when they hear their branch and receive applause from the audience.”

One of the more surprising pieces on the program is the “NFL on FOX” sports theme. Ochsner said he received an email from Chad Rehmann, who created an orchestral arrangement of it and offered a license to perform the melody that will be familiar to football fans everywhere.

“To be perfectly honest, I don’t watch sports, but I know our audiences do, and so I thought that this was a short one-minute-and-15-second thing that might be recognizable,” he said. “Let’s program it.”

Jackie Popovec of The Vindys will join the orchestra to sing “The Wizard and I” from the musical “Wicked,” “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from the movie “The Wizard of Oz” and “Golden” from the Netflix animated film “KPop Demon Hunters.”

“I’m thrilled by the music choices the symphony and I will perform on Sunday night,” Popovec said. “These are some of the hardest songs vocally I have ever prepared for, and I love the challenge.”

Ochsner decided to program “Golden” after it became the first KPop song to win a Grammy Award as a way to reach younger audience members. He’s conducted “The Wizard and I” before and, “‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ is from one of my favorite movies of all time, so that has a close connection for me,” he said.

Other choices have a personal connection as well. Phil Desmond’s “Take Five” is best known for the version recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, and Brubeck is someone Ochsner had a chance to meet through Kunzel.

The soundtrack for the fireworks show will include John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever,” Morton Gould’s “American Salute,” John Williams’ “Raiders of the Lost Ark” march, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 and 1812 Overture.

Ochsner created a 20-minute music file of the finale and sent it to Grand Finale Fireworks LLC in Willoughby to create the visual accompaniment.

Grand Finale owner Nick Carmigiano described the creation process.

“The meetings and planning have been going on for months now,” he said. “This is highly comprehensive and concisely choreographed.”

Once Carmigiano received the music file, he used firework scripting software to design the visuals.

“I cue in where each individual firework is going to be ignited from start to finish,” Carmigiano said. “We get everything set up day of, and we have a very sophisticated firing system that’s military grade. It is instantaneous and on point with whatever we scripted. Our hope is, if we design this and plant it the right way, the fireworks should not only accompany the orchestra, but it should literally accentuate almost each and every individual set and beat and cue.”

Grand Finale will be launching the fireworks from the Market Street bridge. Using that elevated perch as the launch site will make it visible far beyond the amphitheater.

“It’s not only going to be a really nice close effect for the audience in the amphitheater, but people should be able to see it from miles away,” Carmigiano said. “It’s really going to be a sight to behold.”

If you go …

WHAT: Ignite the Night featuring the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra with Erik Ochsner, conductor and Jackie Popovec, vocalist; Beck-Ward Project and fireworks

WHEN: 6 to 10:30 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre, 201 S. Phelps St., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Admission is free. For more information, go to youngstownsymphony.com/blog/ignite-the-night/