Lifting our republic above the aftermath of the stormy 2012 election season, the Oakland East Bay Symphony and music director Michael Morgan opened their 24th season Friday night with "Celebrating Democracy," an all-American tribute to the unifying power of music.

Taking his place before a slim line of brass, percussion and timpani musicians, Morgan launched black composer Adolphus Hailstork's energetic "American Fanfare." Witnessed from a balcony seat in the gorgeous, art-deco cave that is the Paramount Theatre, the composition's joyful burst with hints of grandeur was not unlike the experience an immigrant might have, sighting land after months at sea.

Having disembarked on solid American ground, the concert took off on a crisscrossing musical journey.
...
"Episodes for Orchestra," by UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus Olly Wilson, was described by Morgan in remarks to the audience as a three-section work composed of seven episodes.

Tightly bound by foreboding strings, tympanic outbursts and sporadic fanfares from the brass and woodwinds, "Episodes" showed off the symphony's thunder most convincingly. A lyrical center section -- strings vibrating in smaller and smaller increments until an iridescent sound sheen was created -- gave way to gremlins, running through the final sections like a disjointed, three-legged race to the finish.
...
Suggesting democracy restored, "Celebrating America" closed as it began: offering a healing balm in the majestic music of the Oakland Symphony.

[Adolphus C. Hailstork (b. 1941) is featured at AfriClassical.com]