Dvořák’s ecstatic Cello Concerto
Unorchestrated
The Akron Symphony will present Dvořák’s warm-hearted, ecstatic, and deeply lyrical Cello Concerto with guest soloist Khari Joyner on November 18 at EJ Thomas Hall. The performance will also include William Grant Still’s Festive Overture and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6. Like the New World Symphony, the Cello Concerto is another work hailing from Dvořák’s American period and is therefore infused with the same sense of homesick longing that pervades the symphony. Khari Joyner has a following both nationally and abroad as a versatile concert cellist, chamber musician and...
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Sonic Theater on Organ
Unorchestrated
The Akron Symphony Orchestra will present Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony on October 21 at EJ Thomas Hall. In this episode, Music Director Christopher Wilkins sits down with Robert Mollard, principal keyboardist, to talk about the performance in a conversation that was sponsored by The Friends of the Akron Symphony. Join the Akron Symphony for Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony, featuring Principal Keyboardist Robert Mollard on the Rodgers digital organ, on October 21 at 7:30 p.m., at EJ Thomas Hall. The Preview from the Podium begins at 6:30 p.m. Tickets for the performance, which also includes...
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A Cultural Expression through Music
Unorchestrated
The Akron Symphony will open its new season with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony on September 29 at EJ Thomas Hall. The evening will also include the Akron premiere of Jerod Tate’s Clans from Lowak Shoppala’. The piece will include narration by Akron’s Dr. LaDonna Blue Eye, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, and Jerod will be the guest conductor. In this episode, we sit down with Music Director Christopher Wilkins and composer Jerod Tate to discuss his distinguished career, his inspirations, and Lowak Shoppala', which is a work that expresses Chickasaw identity through the medium of modern...
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Beethoven's Supreme Masterpiece
Unorchestrated
The Akron Symphony will open its new season with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony on September 29 at EJ Thomas Hall. Not only will the evening be the start of a yearlong celebration of 70 years of music, but also mark the 50th anniversary of EJ Thomas Hall, which the Akron Symphony opened in October of 1973 with a performance of … Beethoven’s 9th! In this episode, we sit down with Music Director Christopher Wilkins and Chorus Director Chris Albanese to discuss a composition that is recognized as one of the supreme masterpieces of the Western tradition, and has become an international symbol of...
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Brahms Requiem Part 2
Unorchestrated
As the performance of Brahms Requiem approaches, the chorus has been hard at work preparing! Go behind the scenes with host Tom Moore and Akron Symphony chorus director Chris Albanese to learn more about how the chorus is gearing up for Brahms Requiem.
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Brahms Requiem Part 1
Unorchestrated
Valerie Coleman’s Umoja expresses the joy of community, through a single irresistibly catchy tune. Not since Bobby McFerrin’s Don’t Worry, Be Happy has a composer created such memorably euphoric music. Deep joy lies also at the heart of Brahms’ Requiem. It is his most personal work, composed as a response to the death of his mother. Its focus is not on the past, but on the present. The work’s majestic harmonies and soaring melodic lines are for us: they are comfort for the living.
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Mahler's Third Part 4
Unorchestrated
Music Director Christopher Wilkins chats with Principal Trombone John Gruber about Mahler's Third.
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Mahler 3 Podcast 3
Unorchestrated
Do you love our preconcert Preview from the Podiums? Now you can get to know our upcoming with a pre-preconcert talk! Here's another installment of our Mahler's Third series!
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Mahler 3 Podcast 2
Unorchestrated
Maestro Christopher Wilkins speaks about Mahler's grand design for the Third Symphony. Using musical examples, he follows the course of the symphony's six movements up the Great Chain of Being: from inanimate matter, to plant and animal life, the human realm, the heavenly host, and finally to all-embracing cosmic love—agape.
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ASO 23-24 Season Preview
Unorchestrated
The Akron Symphony Orchestra’s new season is filled with a diverse range of music, world-class performers, exciting collaborations, and numerous milestones! The Akron Symphony will open its 70th season on September 29 with a program featuring Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. It is a fitting choice as the season also marks the 50th anniversary of EJ Thomas Hall and the orchestra performed Beethoven’s towering symphony when the hall opened in October of 1973.
info_outlineIn the final episode of our series on the Akron Symphony Chorus, we sit down with Chorus Director Chris Albanese and special guests Chuck Myricks Jr. and Jesse Ayers about There’s a Stirrin’ in the Water, which they co-composed in 2016.
The episode includes selections of There’s a Stirrin’ in the Water from the November 2016 performance by the Akron Symphony Orchestra and Akron Symphony Chorus, as well as a performance by the Akron Symphony Chorus in May 2021 from the parking lot of the First United Methodist Church in Akron.
As a pioneering participant in Akron’s Gospel Meets Symphony concerts, Chuck Myricks has had several of his compositions performed by the Akron Symphony Orchestra and the Tuscarawas Philharmonic. In 2000, he was commissioned by Akron’s First Night to write the new Millennium Theme Song for the city-wide celebration. His 2004 collaboration with the Ohio Ballet led to the premier of Transformation, a ballet featuring music composed by Chuck and performed by Divine Hope. He also has written a musical, The Miracle of Love, and an opera, Paul: A Musical Journey.
Jesse Ayers was the winner of the inaugural American Prize for Orchestral Composition in 2011, and winner of the first Opera Kansas Zepick Modern Opera Composition Competition in 2016. Recent honors include the 2020 Governor’s Award for Ohio’s Outstanding Individual Artist, the 2019 Ohio Music Teachers Association Composer of the Year Commission, two Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Excellence Awards, the 2011 Dayton Ballet “New Music for New Dance” award, a 2010 MacDowell Fellowship, and seven “Finalist” awards from the American Prize. His music has twice been selected to represent the United States at the prestigious World Music Days festival. Learn more at his website.