“The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s second Porgy and Bess in concert at the Strathmore Music Center in three years is something to celebrate, particularly as there has been a fracas recently over future funding for the orchestra,” writes Whitney Fishburn in Saturday’s (4/13) DC Metro Theater Arts. “Performances like this [keep] me and others in the region connected to the American musical tradition, in anticipation of what is to come, and all performed by musicians who are excited to bring these works to life for the enjoyment of audiences in our region. Just this week, to help staunch [the orchestra’s] 16 million dollars in losses over the past decade, Maryland state legislators passed a bipartisan bill to give the BSO 1.6 million dollars in each of the next two years, while also commissioning a workgroup to study how the orchestra spends. The bill awaits Governor Larry Hogan’s signature. [Music Director Marin] Alsop is leveraging her organization’s regional status to elevate the orchestra’s importance on the world stage. She does this by offering popular performances of works like Porgy and Bess … while exploring lesser-known American works like Joplin’s [Treemonisha] and commissioning new works that explore our history for audiences of today and tomorrow.”
Posted April 17, 2019
In photo: Singers from the Morgan State University Choir perform in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s semistaged Porgy and Bess in North Bethesda, Maryland, April 11, 2019. Photo courtesy of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
