Posted March 23, 2018
DAYTON, OHIO (March 23, 2018) – On Sunday, April 8, 2018 at 5 p.m., Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra (DPO) musicians, under the leadership of Artistic Director and Conductor Neal Gittleman, will travel to St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, 5301 Free Pike, Trotwood, OH, to celebrate the human spirit through the universal medium of music with their first Stained Glass Series Concert of the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance 2017-2018 The Great Ones Season. This concert the last of three scheduled concerts in the DPAA Stained Glass Series for the 2017-2018 season. All concerts on the Stained Glass Series are free and open to the public with no ticket required.
The Dayton Philharmonic’s Stained Glass Concerts are part of a series of community outreach efforts called the Norma Ross Memorial Community Concerts in honor of the late Mrs. Norma Ross, a tireless advocate for music and minority youth. All Stained Glass Concerts are free with generous seating available. The 2017–2018 Stained Glass Series and Norma Ross Memorial Community Concerts are made possible by the Bob Ross Auto Group.
This year’s Stained Glass Concerts will feature Mozart’s melodic Symphony No. 35, known as the “Haffner” Symphony. Mozart was commissioned to write the piece in haste for the ennoblement of Salzburg magistrate Herr Siegmund Haffner in 1792.
The four movements of Mozart’s beautiful symphony will be interspersed with two additional works. The first is the second movement from the ensemble work American Standard by modern American composer John Adams, written in 1973. Adams’ “Christian Zeal and Activity” has gained a level of independence as a stand-alone piece, consisting of slow tonal chords with the compelling voice-over of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This piece was selected to commemorate the upcoming 50th anniversary of King’s death in April 1968.
The second is a wonderful work by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a composer and conductor with a racially diverse background: his mother was from England and his father was a Creole from Sierra Leone. Coleridge-Taylor is most famous for his cantata Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, rivaled only by choral standards such as Handel’s Messiah. For this year’s Stained Glass concerts, the DPO will perform Coleridge-Taylor’s lively Novelette.
The concert will close with a moving piece by Kirk Franklin entitled “Don’t Cry,” to be performed by the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra musicians and the St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church choir. The DPO would like to thank Rev. Benjamin E. K. Speare-Hardy II and St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church for their warm welcome and eagerness to be a part of the 2017-2018 Stained Glass Concert Series.
The DPO and St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church wish to extend an open invitation to the community of Dayton to enjoy a celebratory afternoon when classical and gospel music come together to unite our Dayton community.
For more information on this April 8 Stained Glass Concert, please call St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church at (937) 837-7741 or the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance at (937) 224-3521. For more information on the 2017-2018 Stained Glass Series, visit www.daytonperformingarts.org/stainedglass.