Headlines at Hopkins
News Release

Office of News and Information
Johns Hopkins University
901 South Bond Street, Suite 540
Baltimore, Maryland 21231
Phone: 443-287-9960 | Fax: 443-287-9920

February 9, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Edie Stern
410-516-6542
Cell: 410-913-0745, hso@jhu.edu


HSO Concerts to Feature
"Songs of Harriet Tubman"

The Hopkins Symphony Orchestra will celebrate the life of Harriet Tubman with two performances of a new song cycle, first with a free family concert on Saturday, Feb. 28, and then with a full performance on Sunday, March 1, in Shriver Hall Auditorium on the Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus, 3400 N. Charles St. in Baltimore.

Music director Jed Gaylin and the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra will welcome composer/narrator Nkeiru Okoye and soprano Kishna Davis to perform Okoye's "Songs of Harriet Tubman," which follows Tubman's life from childhood slavery in Maryland to maturity as a liberator in the Underground Railroad. The concerts will also feature Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Symphony No. 2 "Antar," which tells the legend of a pre-Islamic Arabian-Ethopian poet and adventurer. The program will be given in excerpted form as HSO's 17th Annual Free Concert for Children and Families from 1 to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 28. After that performance, the audience will be invited onstage to meet the musicians and see their instruments up close. The program will be performed in full at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 1, with a pre-concert talk by Okoye at 2 p.m.

Former Morgan State University professor Nkeiru Okoye is one of the most-performed female African-American symphonic composers in the United States. Her music has been praised for its accessible style and the way it combines contemporary classical, African-American, popular music, and West African influences. "Songs of Harriet Tubman" is one of many compositions in which Okoye celebrates African-American women.

Baltimore Opera Competition winner Kishna Davis has won acclaim throughout the U.S. and Europe for her performances in opera, with orchestras and in solo recitals. The Columbia, Md., resident holds degrees from Morgan State University and the Juilliard School of Music. She recently premiered "Songs of Harriet Tubman" with the Western Piedmont Symphony in North Carolina.

Jed Gaylin, now in his 16th season as HSO music director, also directs the Bay-Atlantic Symphony and the Cape May Music Festival, both in New Jersey. He is principal guest conductor of the National Film and Radio Philharmonic in Beijing.

The Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, a program of the Johns Hopkins University, is the only community orchestra in Baltimore City. Each year, the HSO offers four symphonic and three chamber concerts, and a special children's concert. HSO members are Johns Hopkins students, alumni, faculty and staff, as well as talented Baltimore-Washington area musicians.

The Hopkins Symphony Orchestra is supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive. An agency of the Department of Business & Economic Development, the MSAC provides financial support and technical assistance to nonprofit organizations, units of government, colleges, and universities for arts activities. The Feb. 28 children's concert has special support from the Mayor of Baltimore and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts.

Featured works in other upcoming 2008-09 season concerts include:

♦ Grieg's Holberg Suite, Piazzolla's Melody in A Minor, and Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, Sunday, Feb. 15;

♦ The winners of the 2008-09 Johns Hopkins Concerto Competition, Philip Wolf playing the Saint-Saens Cello Concerto and Mengyu Lan playing the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1, Saturday, April 4;

♦ and Brahms' Symphony No. 4 and Sanchez-Gutierrez's "...Ex Machina for Piano, Marimba, and Symphony Orchestra," featuring pianist Cristina Valdes and marimbist Makoto Nakura, Sunday, April 26.

Admission to the Feb. 28 children's concert is free for everyone; no tickets are needed. Admission to the March 1 concert is free for Johns Hopkins University students. Tickets are $8 for other students, seniors (60+), and Johns Hopkins affiliates. General admission is $10. Visitor parking on campus is available in the South Garage, 3101 Wyman Park Drive, Baltimore, Md. 21211. (The South Garage address is also the best location to use for Web- or GPS-generated driving directions.)

For information about all HSO programs, call 410-516-6542, write to hso@jhu.edu, or visit www.jhu.edu/jhso. High resolution digital photos are available upon request to hso@jhu.edu.

Related Web site:
> Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra