HamptonRoads.com: 'Hailstork will be presented with the first VSO Dreamer Award'

[Adolphus C. Hailstork]

AfriClassical congratulates composer Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork on his receipt of the first Virginia Symphony Orchestra "Dreamer Award":

“VSO's 'Dreamer' pays tribute to King”

HamptonRoads.com

Joy Vann

Virginian-Pilot correspondent

© January 12, 2012

“Historic spirituals, jazz classics and sweeping orchestral music will fill Second Calvary Baptist Church in Norfolk on Sunday when the city of Norfolk and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra present a free concert, 'Songs for a Dreamer: A Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.' "There is diversity in the program. We have very orchestral-sounding things as well as jazz. We're doing a piece by Duke Ellington, 'Three Black Kings,' which he intended to be a eulogy for Martin Luther King. You'll also hear gospel and swing with orchestral music woven in together."

“Marsha Staples of the VSO Education and Community Engagement Department said the concert was conceived as a community event suited more to a church than a concert hall. Among the pieces featured will be 'Fanfare on Amazing Grace' by local composer Adolphus Hailstork, an eminent scholar and professor at Old Dominion University. Of 'Fanfare,' Staples said, 'It's a phenomenally beautiful piece. It has the theme of “Amazing Grace” in it, but you have to really listen because it's surrounded by brass.'

“During the concert, Hailstork will be presented with the first VSO Dreamer Award. Staples said that the award was created to honor a person who reflects King's legacy.” “The concert finale will feature Benjamin Rous conducting the orchestra with Norfolk State University's Jazz Ensemble. 'The 14-minute finale, “His Light Still Shines,” is written by Moses Hogan, another great African American writer of choral music,' Staples said. 'It has a great choice of sounds that you'll hear in it.'

"Two soloists will be featured. Saxophonist Stephanie Sanders will perform on the Martin Luther King section of 'Three Black Kings' and violinist Brendon Elliott will perform 'Mother and Child,' the second movement of 'Suite for Violin and Orchestra' by [William Grant Still]."  [Adolphus C. Hailstork (b. 1941) and William Grant Still (1895-1978) are featured at AfriClassical.com]