Posted January 22, 2019
DAYTON, OHIO (January 22, 2019) – On Sunday, February 10, 2019 at 5 p.m., Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra (DPO) musicians, under the leadership of Artistic Director and Conductor Neal Gittleman, will travel to Inspiration Church, 2900 Philadelphia Drive, Dayton, Ohio, to celebrate the human spirit through the universal medium of music with their second Stained Glass Series Concert of the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance 2018-2019 Vistas Season. This concert is 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 2018–2019 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 Ludwig van Beethoven’s delightful Symphony No. 2. Beethoven’s Second Symphony falls quietly between his beloved first symphony and his acclaimed and inventive third symphony, Eroica. At the time he was writing Symphony No. 2, Beethoven was struggling with the fact that his hearing loss was certain and was rapidly worsening. However, that fact did not stop him from composing one of his most energetic and upbeat works. According to biographer Lewis Lockwood, Beethoven’s Second Symphony “…signaled that from now on in Beethoven’s works, power and lyricism in extreme forms were to be unleashed as never before…and that contemporaries, ready or not, would have to reshape their expectations to keep up with him.”
Between the first two and the last two movements of Beethoven’s masterwork, the DPO will honor the late American composer George Theophilus Walker by performing his 1946 work “Lyric for Strings.” In 1996, George Walker became the first African-American composer to receive the coveted Pulitzer Prize in Music for his beautiful work Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra. Walker passed away last year on August 23, 2018. Up until the time of his death, “Lyric for Strings” remained one of the most-performed pieces of orchestral music by a living American composer.
This Stained Glass Concert on February 10 will close with the glorious “Bless Me (Prayer of Jabez)” to be performed by the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra musicians and the Inspiration Church Praise Team, under the direction of Cynthia Ridgell. The DPO would like to thank Inspiration Church Pastors Corey and Stephanie Cunningham for their warm welcome and eagerness to be a part of the 2018-2019 Stained Glass Concert Series.
The DPO and Inspiration 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 February 10 Stained Glass Concert, please call Inspiration Church at (937) 496-5607 or the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance at (937) 224-3521. For more information on the 2018-2019 Stained Glass Series, visit www.daytonperformingarts.org/1819-stained-glass.
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About the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance
The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance was formed in July 2012 as the result of a groundbreaking and innovative merger between the Dayton Ballet, the Dayton Opera, and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. Together, they are the largest performing arts organization in the community, offering a tremendous variety of performance and education programs and setting a new standard for artistic excellence. Dayton Performing Arts Alliance performances are made possible in part by Montgomery County and Culture Works, the single largest source of community funds for the arts and culture in the Miami Valley. The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance also receives partial funding from the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency created to foster and encourage the development of the arts and to preserve Ohio’s cultural heritage. Funding from the Ohio Arts Council is an investment of state tax dollars that promotes economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohio residents. In 2013, The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance was thrilled to be one of five performing arts organizations in the country selected to receive a three-year “Music Alive” grant from New Music USA and the League of American Orchestras. The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance is the proud recipient of a 2017-2018 Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.