From:  Jane Polett, Quincy Symphony Orchestra 217-222-2856 qsoa@adams.net

THE AMERICAN JOURNEY FAMILY CONCERT

On Saturday, November 17 at 3:00PM in the Morrison Theatre, the Quincy Symphony Orchestra and the Quincy Community Theatre will present a FAMILY CONCERT celebrating THE AMERICAN JOURNEY through works of American composers George Chadwick, Aaron Copland, and Peter Boyer.  This inspiring and educational concert for all ages will focus on American heritage and the experience of our immigrant ancestors.

The QSO will open the concert with George Chadwick’s Jubilee from Symphonic Sketches.   Symphonic Sketches is one of Chadwick’s most vivid and “American” compositions.  From the beginning Chadwick intended the work as a suite of movements suitable for individual performance. Jubilee, which was completed in 1895, is the first movement of Symphonic Sketches, and has a distinctly American character in its adaptation of indigenous rhythm, spirited melodies, and folk music. The music is brilliantly orchestrated with energetic dances, marches and attractive melodies.  Chadwick included this poem in the full score preceding Jubilee:  No cool gray tones for me! Give me the warmest red and green, A cornet and a tambourine, To paint MY jubilee!  For when pale flutes and oboes play, To sadness I become a prey; Give me the violets and the May, But no gray skies for me!

Jubilee will be followed by a performance of Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land Suite for orchestra.  The Tender Land is an opera centered around a farm family living in the Midwest during the Depression.  The daughter (Laurie), about to graduate from high school, falls in love with a drifter. The orchestral suite contains three of the opera’s most touching, energizing, and inspiring moments; though, in Copland’s words, “it does not represent a digest of the dramatic action of the opera, but proceeds from the second act to the first in a three-movement sequence:” The three movements are: I) Introduction and Love Music: Laurie and Martin declare their love for each other; II) Party Scene: Laurie’s graduation party; III) Finale: The Promise of Living. In the third movement, Copland beautifully interweaves two melodies, with the music gradually building in power until it becomes the grandest of Thanksgiving hymns [A. Yeung].

The centerpiece of the concert will be the collaborative performance of Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island:  The Dream of America for actors and orchestra with projected images.  Dr. Bruce Briney will serve as Music Director, Dominic Cattero will serve as Theatrical Director, and Paul Denckla will serve as Technical Director.  The performance will begin and end with the visual projection of historic images from the Ellis Island archives.  From its opening video images of immigrants arriving at Ellis Island to the final shots of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island: The Dream of America is a work of rare authenticity and directness.  The spoken texts come from the Ellis Island Oral History Project, an historic collection of interviews with actual immigrants about their experiences coming to America.  Actors Bobette Cawthon, Susan Dean, Ed Dodson, Ted Doellman, Mike Gash, Marci Keller, and Doris Malacarne will portray seven immigrants who came to America through Ellis Island from disparate nations between 1910-1940.  The actual words of these immigrants combine with orchestration which frames and comments on their stories—at times poignant, humorous, moving, inspiring. The work concludes with a reading of The New Colossus (“Give me your tired, your poor…”), providing an emotionally powerful ending to this celebration of our nation of immigrants. Visit www.propulsivemusic.com for more information and sound-bytes from this memorable work.

Plan to arrive early to hear Dr. Bruce Briney, QSO Music Director, speak about the works to be performed at 2:20PM from the stage of the Morrison Theatre.  The Quincy Symphony Orchestra is celebrating A LEGACY OF EXCELLENCE, the 60th Anniversary season.  The AMERICAN JOURNEY Guest Artist Sponsor is Mercantile Trust & Savings Bank and the Media Sponsor is KHQA.  THE AMERICAN JOURNEY concert will be offered FREE to the public due to support received through grants from the Illinois Humanities Council, the Tracy Family Foundation, and from the Marion Gardner Jackson Trust Arts Fund; which is sponsored by the Marion Gardner Jackson Trust and the business and individual members of the Quincy Society of Fine Arts.  Free tickets will be available at the door, or may be picked up in advance at Wild Birds Unlimited, or at any Quincy Mercantile Trust & Savings Bank Location.  All QSOA events are partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.  Visit www.qsoa.org for more information.