On July 16, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra will perform a free outdoor concert entitled “Orchestrating Freedom” on the Terrace Lawn of the Charleston Gaillard Center. Associate Conductor Kellen Gray will lead the concert, which is being presented by Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, International African American Museum, and Charleston Gaillard Center to honor the lives lost and voices silenced through race-based violence, while also paying homage to the legacies of Black leaders. The concert will include Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, Adolphus Hailstork’s Epitaph for a Man Who Dreamed (in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King), selections from Joel Thompson’s Seven Last Words of the Unarmed, Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come,” and John Legend/Common’s “Glory” from the film Selma. The Lowcountry Voices ensemble will also perform. The concert is part of July 14-16 events in Charleston marking the bicentennial of the execution of Denmark Vesey (1767-1822), a Black pastor and community leader in Charleston who was executed after being convicted of planning a slave uprising in 1822. Events will include a lecture and panel discussion. For more information visit https://gaillardcenter.org/denmark-vesey/.
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