Who gets to speak for a nation? Who dares to tell its histories, raise its flag, and call its residents to a more unified future? The MPO joins forces with One Voice Mixed Chorus in an evening of fanfare, song, and symphony.
Valerie Coleman: Umoja for wind quintet
Andrew Balfour: Mamachimowin
William Grant Still: Plain Chant for America
Carlos Cordero: ¡Ayúdame! (Venezuelan Plea for Life)
Reena Esmail: Still I Rise:: with Kimberly Waigwa and One Voice Mixed Chorus
Fanfares, chorals, Beethovenian heroism and a panoply of percussion instruments make Tan Dun’s Internet Symphony: Eroica an absolute romp. The MPO then joins forces with One Voice Mixed Chorus for the premier of a new work by Nathan Hall.
Finally, Tchaikovsky’s passionate Symphony No. 6, which the composer called “the most sincere of all my creations,” is an emotional epic, pouring forth with wonder, joy, fury, and lament – passionate in every sense of the word.
Tan Dun – Internet Symphony: Eroica
Nathan Hall – “Love, Death, What Else?!” – World Premiere, with One Voice Mixed Chorus
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6 in B Minor “Pathetique“
Conducted by Brian Dowdy
Works Performed
Tan Dun, Internet Symphony: Eroica
Nathan Hall, “Love, Death, What Else?!” with soloist One Voice Mixed Chorus
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 in B Minor “Pathetique“ with soloist One Voice Mixed Chorus
Dates Performed
March 11, 2023
#121 “Currents”
Concert first performed on November 9, 2019.
Symphonic hymns and airs resound with nature imagery in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Symphonic Variations on an African Air, Dvořák’s In Nature’s Realm, and Sibelius’ Finlandia. MPO and One Voice Mixed Chorus celebrate contemporary composers with local history in works by Dessa and Jocelyn Hagen, Mari Ésabel Valverde, and Lee Hoiby.
Conducted by Brian Dowdy
Works Performed
Antonin Dvořák, Nature’s Realm
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Symphonic Variations on an African Air, Op. 63
Jean Sibelius, Finlandia
Mari Esabel Valverde, Cloths of Heaven with soloist One Voice Mixed Chorus
Dessa/Jocelyn Hagen, Controlled Burn with soloist One Voice Mixed Chorus
Lee Hoiby, Hymn to the New Age with soloist One Voice Mixed Chorus
Dates Performed
November 9, 2019
#117 Uncommon Voices
Concert first performed on November 3, 2018.
To begin the next 25 years of MPO history, we join forces with One Voice Mixed Chorus in a transcontinental program featuring Libby Larsen’s Fanfare for Humanity, Florence Price’s Symphony No. 1, and opera choruses by Verdi and Copland.
Conducted by Brian Dowdy
Works Performed
Libby Larsen, Fanfare for Humanity
Florence Price, Symphony No. 1 in e minor
Giuseppe Verdi, Overture to Nabucco
Giuseppe Verdi, “Va Pensiero” from Nabucco
Giuseppe Verdi, “Vedi! Le fosche” (Anvil Chorus) from Il trovatore
Aaron Copland, “The promise of living” from The Tender Land
