Monday, January 16, 2012

Plain Dealer: 'Cleveland Orchestra pays homage to Martin Luther King Jr. in sold-out Severance Hall concert'


[The Central State University Chorus and ML King Jr. Celebration Chorus sing "Let All the World in Every Corner Sing," during the The Cleveland Orchestra's 32nd annual Martin Luther King Jr. concert, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012, at Severance Hall in Cleveland. ( Peggy Turbett/ The Plain Dealer)]

Monday, January 16, 2012
“If there's one thing the Cleveland Orchestra does exceptionally well, besides play great orchestral music, it's honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Consider what happened Sunday night at Severance Hall. For the 32nd year in a row, empty seats were as scarce as space on stage as the orchestra and a crowd of musical guests whipped 2,000 listeners onto their feet and into a frenzy of jubilation celebrating the leader's life and legacy.”


“Conductor Chelsea Tipton II, music director of the Symphony of Southeast Texas, presided over a 'Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Concert' as vital and moving as any in the event's long history, regularly addressing the audience from the podium and offering insight on the music and performers.”

“In keeping with tradition and much like the peaceful, diverse world King envisioned, the 'Celebration Concert' program was a happy mix of classical, gospel and spiritual music as performed by the orchestra and a vast vocal entity composed of the renowned Central State University Chorus and the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Chorus, an energetic band of singers drawn for the occasion from about 60 church choirs around Northeast Ohio.

“The orchestra also has a pleasant habit of featuring the most recent winner of the annual Spinx Competition, a high-profile contest for young African-American and Hispanic string players. For that one musician who gets here, it's a career boost like no other. This year, the relationship with Sphinx paid off especially handsomely in the form of violinist Alexandra Switala, of Texas, who easily demonstrated with Ravel's 'Tzigane' how she came to take first place in the Sphinx's junior division.”




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