In Sunday’s (10/29) Oregonian (Portland), Oregon Symphony President and CEO Scott Showalter writes about “Sounds of Home,” a “three-part concert series [that] challenges the conventions of classical music by exploring immigration, the environment and homelessness…. With the belief that music can help us to understand our world, we hope to encourage concertgoers to reflect…. On opening night this season … George Takei, famous for his role on ‘Star Trek,’ narrated excerpts from President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in Aaron Copland’s ‘Lincoln Portrait.’ That piece was completed in 1942, the same year that Takei and his Japanese-American parents were forced into an internment camp by the U.S. government. Early next month, the Symphony begins the ‘Sounds of Home’ around its first theme, immigration. The program will feature new music accompanying a new play, ‘Azaan,’ which translates as ‘a call to prayer.’ … It marks the first collaboration between Indian playwright Dipika Guha and composer Chris Rogerson…. Maestro Carlos Kalmar’s parents fled Nazi Germany, and many of our musicians or their parents immigrated to the United States…. ‘Sounds of Home’ continues in January with a program regarding the environment, our collective home, and in May with another on homelessness, the need for a home.”
Posted October 31, 2017
