Sat 11/18 @ 7:30PM
The Akron Symphony continues its ongoing project — diversity — in its next concert at E.J. Thomas Hall, spotlighting both a Black classical music composer and a Black musician soloist.
William Grant Still, whose 1944 award-winning Festive Overture opens the evening, has seen a resurgence of the inclusion of his music on orchestral concert programs in the last few years. The 20th-century composer (1895-1978) was born and grew up in the Deep South but was educated in Ohio, at the historically Black Wilberforce University and at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. By he mid 20th century, his music was often performed and much in demand for film, while he composed operas, ballets, symphonies and more.
Then the program moves on to late 19th-century Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, which was first performed in 1896. The cello soloist is Khari Joyner, an Atlanta native now in his early 30s, with three degrees from the Juilliard School and extensive international performing experience. He’s currently an assistant professor of cello at Baldwin Wallace University.
Finally, the program concludes with one of Russian composer Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s most beloved works, his 1893 Symphony No. 6 (“Pathétique”).
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