Music Director Marin Alsop will lead the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Soulful Symphony and Baltimore City College Choir in the State of Maryland’s 23rd Annual Tribute Concert in celebration of what would have been the 80th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
The annual tribute concert will also be performed at The Music Center at Strathmore for the first time on Thursday, January 8, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. Presented in partnership with Maryland’s Commission on African American History and Culture, this year’s tribute features Joseph Schwanter’s New Morning for the World—a musical setting of Dr. King’s stirring speeches, narrated by former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume. See below for biographies and complete program information.
Inspired by the speeches that incited the civil rights movement, Joseph Schwanter’s New Morning for the World remains a compelling and relevant call for change. Originally premiered in 1982, Schwanter’s piece for narrator and orchestra has since entered the standard repertory of orchestras nationwide. Noted dignitary, author, TV personality and former NAACP President, Kweisi Mfume, lends his respected voice as narrator.
Also featured will be a selection from Soulful Symphony founder and director Darin Atwater’s Evolution of a People. This work takes the audience on a musical journey through the history of African Americans, from life in Africa to slavery to contemporary America. “It’s difficult, because it’s so horrific,” Atwater said of his research into struggles of African Americans throughout the ages. “But you want that conviction to come through in your art. So it’s like an actor—a lot of times, people try to stay on the surface of things, but you really can’t portray the reality of the horror without immersing yourself in the pain that they must have gone through.”
BSO-Peabody Conducting Fellow Joseph Young will conduct Michael Abels’ Global Warming. Originally premiered in 1991, the piece focuses not on climate change as the title might imply, but rather on continued improvement in relations between people from disparate ethnicities.
“I was intrigued by the similarities between folk music of divergent cultures and decided to write a piece that celebrates these common threads as well as the sudden improvement in international relations that was occurring,” explains Abels. “Since the piece was commissioned for an orchestra in the desert city of Phoenix, Arizona, Global Warming was the title that seemed to incorporate all these ideas best.”
City College Choir will perform two a cappella works, including I Have Overcome the World and Signs of Judgment. The concert concludes with Richard Smallwood’s rousing Total Praise performed by full choir and orchestra. -- www.bsomusic.org
Comment and add to the story without registration, but keep the comments meaningful please. Links are not accepted.
