Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra season-ending concert celebrates heroes

For Monday's "Heroes" concert, closing the 2023-24 "Sounds of Triumph" season, celebrating human spirit, hope and resiliency, Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra Music Director Adam Flatt programmed two culminating pieces of contrasting scope, "New Morning for the World — Daybreak of Freedom," and an era-defining, world-changing "beast," Beethoven's "Eroica."

The former will feature actor-singer-musician Willie Williams, a Tuscaloosa native, reading texts from speeches by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., with the chamber music edition of Joseph Schwanter's Pulitzer-winning composition, a piece that's been compared to Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" due to its broad and lyrical scoring, matched to spoken words.

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When Flatt chose it, TSO Executive Director Natassia Perrinne knew Williams would fit, a colleague she'd known since her years as choir director at Central High School. Patrons might recall Williams from numerous performances on local stages, including a starring turn as Coalhouse Walker in Theatre Tuscaloosa's 2017 production of "Ragtime," a role he reprised in a concert version this January at the Bama Theatre.

"I'm thrilled he's coming back to do this," said Perrine. Williams is teaching music, theater and public speaking at Bishop State Community College in Mobile..

The chamber-style backing somehow " ... takes the soaring words of Dr. King, and makes them perhaps even more powerful," Flatt said, in a pre-concert video.

"I think everybody would agree that we still need MLK's words today, in 2024," Perrine said.

Beethoven's title translates to "heroic," inspired initially by Napoleon Bonaparte.

"Napoleon was a hero of Beethoven's," Perrine said. The composer initially believed the French leader embodied the spirit of revolution, of liberty, equality and freedom. "He quickly redacted that when Napoleon declared himself emperor.

"Then it became more about every human's journey. We all have pits, and falls, and challenges that we need to overcome."

Written at or about the time Beethoven admitted he was falling deaf, the symphony No. 3 has been interpreted as representing the composer's own struggles.

In the pre-concert video, Flatt added "This is of course a marquee work in the history of art. It kind of redefined ... what was possible through music. That music this powerful, ambitious was something that could be done. After two centuries, it remains a very powerful and hugely ambitious symphony," in four movements.

"It should be a very stirring experience."

Tickets for the 7 p.m. Monday concert, $33 to $43 (free for students), can be purchased through www.tsoonline.org, or by calling 205-752-5515.

'Stars Fell on Alabama'

The TSO has announced its 2024-2025 season, "Stars Fell on Alabama," featuring a pair of guest artists, and four soloists from within the orchestra, "a star on every concert," Perrine said.

A few changes: Because guest violinist Adé Williams will perform both an evening concert and an edited version for children, the TSO will offer six subscription performances this season.

Guest vocalist Joan Ellison performs Judy Garland-style vocals, so "Stars Fell on Alabama" will open with a pops concert, the Sept. 16 "Get Happy," named for one of the star's signature songs. That will bring the TSO back to perform in the Bama Theatre for the first time in more than a decade, since the 2013 Judy Collins concert.

Though the TSO has enjoyed the warmth and beauty of First Presbyterian Church for recent fall chamber performances, this season's Nov. 18 "Chamber of Lights" will move into the Moody Concert Hall.

"First Presbyterian is gorgeous; those chamber concerts have been highlights for me," Perrine said, "but we're just shaking some things up, trying some things. Like any experiment, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."

"Home for the Holidays," Dec. 9, will follow tradition, with the TSO joined for seasonal works by the Alabama Choir School, and Alabama Choral Society.

Ozzy Molina, the TSO's principal clarinet, will be featured in the Feb. 17, 2025 "Dances and Dreams," performing Mozart's "Clarinet Concerto K. 626." That night's repertory will also include Dvorak's "Symphony No. 7," and John Adams' "The Chairman Dances: Foxtrot for Orchestra," from his opera "Nixon in China."

The March 3 evening concert is titled "Picture This," and will include William Grant Still's "From the Black Belt Suite," Mussorgsky and Ravel's "Pictures at an Exhibition," and Bruch's "Violin Concerto No. 1," the latter featuring guest artist Williams.

The season finale, April 21, will be "Hymns for Everyone," after Jessie Montgomery's "A Hymn for Everyone," which will be performed along with Sibelius' "Finlandia," "The Swan of Tuonela," and "Lemminkäinen's Return." TSO pianist Kevin Chance will be featured on the concluding Grieg work, "Piano Concerto in A minor."

For season ticket and other information, see www.tsoonline.org.

Reach Mark Hughes Cobb at mark.cobb@tuscaloosanews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra season-ending concert celebrates heroes