[Michael Morgan, Conductor & Daniel Bernard Roumain, Violinist & Composer]
The Alabama Symphony's “A Community Tribute to MLK” is distinctive in many respects. We have written about Adolphus Hailstork's composition based on the poetry of Birmingham school children, Dream, Child. Hope. The much-traveled Conductor of the Oakland East Bay Symphony, Michael Morgan, will conduct. The Haitian-American composer and violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain is also known as “DBR” and will perform two of his works. Michael Abels and William Grant Still round out the roster of composers on the program, all of whom are of African descent. Both Adolphus Hailstork and William Grant Still are profiled at AfriClassical.com. Dr. Gregory McPherson will lead the new African Negro Children's Ensemble, along with members of other choirs:
AlabamaSymphony.org
Concert Information
Michael Morgan, Conductor
Daniel Bernard Roumain, Violin
Student Choir Members from Alabama School of Fine Arts (Laura Doss, Director), George Washington Carver High School (Bobby Stringer, Director) and Huffman High School (Chipper Janes, Director)
UAB's Alys Stephens Center / Jemison Concert Hall
Sunday, January 16, 2011
3 p.m.
Hailstork - An American Fanfare
Abels - Dance for Martin's Dream
Roumain - Voodoo Violin Concerto
Still - From the Black Belt
Roumain - Tuscaloosa Meditation
Hailstork - Dream, Child. Hope. (World Premiere)
Nearly 50 years after Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, he continues to influence and inspire across the boundaries of ethnicity, class and generation. The composers featured in this special program each add a distinctive voice to the continuing dialogue about the meaning of difference. The program features the world premiere of Adolphus Hailstork's "Dream, Child. Hope" which was inspired by poetry written by three Birmingham school children.
At the concert...the ASO will perform “Dream, Child. Hope,” an original composition by Adolphus Hailstork, as the featured work of the performance. It will be performed by the orchestra as well as an ensemble of 70 singers drawn from three area groups. The Martin Luther King Jr. Concert Choir will feature members of the newly formed African Negro Children’s Ensemble led by Dr. Gregory McPherson as well as female voices from the Prentice Concert Chorale and the UA Afro American Gospel Choir. More information is available at http://realizingthedream.ua.edu/index.html.
The Alabama Symphony Orchestra commissioned “Dream” as part of its Reflect and Rejoice concerts. The text for the composition is drawn from the poems of three Birmingham schoolchildren. Among the texts are the lines: “The sweet sound of music. Music is hope. A dream in every child.”
Also participating will be conductor Michael Morgan, music director and conductor of the Oakland East Bay Symphony; and concert violinist and composer Daniel Bernard Roumain. Roumain also will perform two of his compositions: “Tuscaloosa Meditations” and “Voodoo Violin Concerto No. 1.” The concert also will feature “American Fanfare” by Hailstork as well as works by Michael Abels and William Grant Still.
Hailstork received his doctorate in composition from Michigan State University, where he was a student of H. Owen Reed. He completed earlier studies at the Manhattan School of Music under Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond, the American Institute at Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger and Howard University with Mark Fax. Hailstork’s works have been performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony and the New York Philharmonic.
A native of Margate, Fla., Roumain studied music as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, where he serves as a visiting professor of composition. He recently collaborated and performed with Lady Gaga on “American Idol” and was profiled as a “New Face of Classical Music” in Esquire magazine.
Morgan also serves as music director of the Sacramento Philharmonic and artistic director of the Oakland Youth Orchestra. Morgan makes about 100 appearances in the nation’s schools each year, particularly in the East Bay, and he is highly regarded as a champion of arts education and minority access to the arts.
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