Classical Roots: Spiritual Heights
Linking Cultures Through Music

A Free Family Concert for the Community:
No tickets are necessary:
Seating is on a first come, first served basis.

Saturday, June 8, 2002
St. Francis Seraph Church
1615 Vine Street, Over-the-Rhine

John Morris Russell, conductor
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for Family Concerts
With Special Guest: Andre McRae, baritone

2:30 p.m. Pre-Concert Activities Featuring:
Peaslee Neighborhood Center's Over-the-Rhine Steel Drum Band
Sparkles the Clown 3:00 p.m. Concert

Ludwig von Beethoven and Jamayal Douglas share the playlist when the CSO performs on Saturday June 8, 2002 at Saint Francis Seraph Church in Over-the-Rhine.

This concert in the CSO's Classical Roots Series unites the neighborhood's German and African American heritages. The orchestra leads off with the Overture to Fidelio, follows with a sing-along of Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing and continues with the Nigerian Dance No.1, by Samuel Akapot. Next will be two spirituals, arranged by Harry T. Burleigh, and sung by Andre McRae, a graduate of the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. The program continues with George Walker's Lyric for Strings and Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag before we will hear The Phoenix by Jamayal Douglas a graduate of the School for Creative and Performing Arts. The first movement of Beethoven's Symphony No.5 concludes the afternoon's performance.

John Morris Russell has been Associate Conductor of the CSO for the past seven years and has had an opportunity to imprint his style on the Family Concerts that are integral to the CSO'(TM)s education and community engagement. Russell and Kathy Jorgensen-Finley, Community Relations Manager, discussed their hopes for the coming event in an Artwhirled interview last week.

The Classical Roots Series started last year when the CSO performed in Lincoln Heights. Bring the series to the Music Hall neighborhood and locating its venue at Saint Francis Seraph Church is a first for the orchestra and the parish. Russell said we are happy, "to have our orchestra play in our own home in a venue that is beautiful, wonderful acoustics, and for free... is special for us all! And we wanted to select a program that would be reflective of this history of Over the Rhine. So there are selections that reflect the German heritage and African American experience."

"When you think German music, of course you think of Beethoven. And then in regards to African American music we are cutting a very wide swath: Akabot is a Nigerian composer, a traditional dance for string orchestra, tympany and djembe, a traditional West African drumming instrument. Then there are two spirituals arranged by Harry T. Burleigh, who has a fascinating history because he was a colleague of Antonin Dvorak in 1892 came to lead the National Conservatory of Music in Manhattan he made sure that before he came over this conservatory would be open to blacks and women and Dvorak about half his students were blacks and women."

"Also there were minorities throughout the school as instructors and one of these was Harry Burleigh, who was one of the first American Ethno-musicologists in that he collected plantation songs, work songs, spirituals and notated them. He thought that these were really outstanding examples of American music. He was pooh-poohed by the American musical establishment at the time, so Dvorak was the first person to take him seriously. Burleigh would sing these spirituals to him everyday and introduced him to the genre and it was because of this relationship that Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, "From the New World" has the song "Going Home" which everyone thinks of as a spiritual. Actually Dvorak composed it in the style of a spiritual, and I guess it's a real tip of the hat to Dvorak because he was able to write it so that many people think he stole this spiritual, but it's not, it's his own piece! So we're going to be doing two of Burleigh's arrangements, "Oh, Didn't it Rain" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." And singing with us is Andre McRae."

"Mid twentieth century African American composer, George Walker, (b. 1922), studied with all the greats and we're presenting Lyric for Strings, which is reminiscent of Barbour's "Adagio for Strings," a gorgeous piece for string orchestra. Then there's Scott Joplin, who shows us a whole different angle to the African American experience. It was Scott Joplin who popularized rag and actually was writing these rags just at the same time as Harry Burleigh was doing his work with Dvorak in New York. We will be doing one of the original orchestrations of the Maple Leaf Rag."

"Then we go from composers of the past to composers of the future, there's a young African-American man, Jamayal Douglas, who was a member of the CSO Youth Orchestra and also a graduate of the School for the Creative and Performing Arts. He's a fine cellist and is now attending the conservatory at Shenandoah Conservatory in Virginia and is planning to go into composition. He has written a piece for us that we presented on some young peoples' concerts, The Phoenix, and we are hoping he will be attending the concert. So this collection of composers represents the past, the present and the future that is inspiring for all of us. And then we finish with "Fate Knocking on the Door," that famous theme from Beethoven's Fifth."

"We just went to St. Francis last week to check it out and they've been redoing it, so it looks spectacular with a nice big area for the orchestra and we are looking forward to playing in this landmark. Actually, St. Francis is one of the few places in Cincinnati that the CSO can go to and perform in a space that is older than Music Hall."

John Morris Russell has great appreciation for Cincinnati and Over-the-Rhine. He says, "Over-the-Rhine is where people come together from all walks of life to enjoy LIFE, music making, good food, entertainment, I mean, this is the SOUL of our city and I think this is what makes this concert so special. It reflects upon that, it's an opportunity for us all to come together and music is the remarkable art form, the universal language and we are hoping that this concert and concerts of this kind in the future will be a touchstone for bringing people together in our city."

Russell is no stranger to living in an historic district. He was formerly conducting in Savannah, Georgia where he met his wife Thea Tjepkema, whose professional field is historic preservation. "When we came here we were both just flabbergasted by the remarkable quality of the housing stock within Over the Rhine. The beauty, the architecture, the number of structures and just stunned by the fact that this all existed and that any other city in America would be burning with jealousy to have so many beautiful historic structures in such good condition. And the potential for creating a livable, workable urban environment is tremendous. It takes time and effort, we are on the right path, but you know it really takes people to come down and enjoy, to work, to live, to become a part of it. It's not just hammers and nails and paint and mortar and bricks, it's people that make it happen. And I hope that this concert in its own small way can keep on pushing this forward to create a unique urban environment that could be really a model for the rest of the country."

Thank you Ruth K. Meyer and Artwhirled for this interview.