In Monday’s (5/14) Grand Rapids Press (Michigan), Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk writes, “Grand Rapids Symphony’s going out with a bang. Dancing girls, blazing brass and a salute to Former First Lady Betty Ford closes the Grand Rapids Symphony’s 2011-12 season this week. Yes, it’s still a Classical Series concert. But Grand Rapids Ballet Company and a battery of extra brass players join the orchestra for its season finale on Friday and Saturday in DeVos Performance Hall. Not one but two world premieres will be heard on the program in DeVos Performance Hall. ‘Reflections of a Leading Lady’ by Grand Rapids composer David Culross will honor Betty Ford, who died last year. Music director David Lockington will lead the orchestra on Friday and Saturday in a 16th century sonata for brass by Giovanni Gabrieli as well as in a brand-new work of his own, ‘Heavens Above, Earth Below,’ using the same forces. … Culross composed the cantata ‘One of Us: Portrait of a Humble Healer’ for narrator and orchestra for the Grand Rapids Symphony following the death of President Ford in 2006. The Grand Rapids Symphony has since recorded ‘One of Us’ following the 2008 premiere.”
Posted May 16, 2012
