The Philadelphia Orchestra honors great civil rights leader in annual Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute Concert

Music Director Christoph Eschenbach appears as guest pianist
with promising young mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford

Guest Conductor Raymond Harvey leads Orchestra
and 175-member community choir

Charlotte Blake Alston hosts the Tribute Concert and two outstanding
African-American high-school students reflect on the life of Dr. King

(Philadelphia, December 20, 2004)

The Philadelphia Orchestra, under the direction of guest conductor Raymond Harvey, honors the great civil rights leader at its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute Concert on Monday, January 10, at 8:00 p.m. in Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. Music Director Christoph Eschenbach speaks briefly and performs as guest pianist with promising young mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford in his first appearance on a Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute Concert. The 2005 program also features a Community Concert Choir (Jonathan Coopersmith, guest chorus director) of over 175 voices, drawn from high schools, the Philadelphia Singers, and area churches. Two outstanding African-American students from local high schools will join concert host and noted storyteller Charlotte Blake Alston in sharing personal reflections on the life and work of Dr. King. The annual Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute Concert is presented by CIGNA.

The Philadelphia Orchestra's Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute Concert reflects the beliefs and convictions of the famed civil rights leader, combining the traditions of African-American culture and Western classical music. The concert pays tribute to Dr. King's religious beliefs, his vision of a society free of prejudice and racial divisions, and his belief in the power of music to effect change. This year's program features traditional African-American spirituals, performances by the Community Concert Choir, and students' personal essays on Dr. King. The program also includes an original poem to accompany Ellington's "Come Sunday," written and performed by Charlotte Blake Alston, as well as orchestral and vocal works by Beethoven, Tippett, Arensky, and Dawson. In addition, the concert includes the song "Lift Every Voice and Sing," by African-American composers (and brothers) John Rosamond and James Weldon Johnson and concludes with "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".

The Community Concert Choir is assembled for the occasion and prepared under the direction of guest chorus director Jonathan Coopersmith. Participants include choir members from Central High School, Girard Academic Music Program, J. R. Masterman High School, Roxborough High School, and Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Philadelphia. The Community Concert Choir also includes choristers from Antioch Baptist Church, Faith Tabernacle Church of the Living God, Kaighns Avenue Baptist Church, Calvary Baptist Church, Parkside United Methodist Church, and First Nazarene Baptist Church in Camden, N.J. Additionally, members of the Philadelphia Singers join the Community Concert Choir.

For the third year at the annual Tribute Concert, the Orchestra will honor two outstanding African-American high-school seniors who, through their superior academic and personal achievements, exemplify the ideals of Dr. King. Teachers and administrators from schools throughout the greater Philadelphia region nominated students based on their outstanding academic and personal achievements, as well as their commitment to the betterment of their community through volunteer service and related activities. From the original group of 23 nominations, 11 students have been selected as finalists: John Hardin-Bey, Abraham Lincoln High School; Cathy Vernet, Archbishop Ryan High School; Cassie Owens, Morgan Rogers, and Michael J. Williams, Central High School School; Renée Hamilton, Creative Arts High School; Darryl Powell, J. R. Masterman High School; Shanelle DeBose and Tiffany Deloatch, John W. Hallahan Catholic Girls' High School; Tunisia Hayward, Paul VI High School; and Jennifer Johnson, W. B. Saul High School. The 11 finalists have been invited to interview with a panel assembled by The Philadelphia Orchestra Association and made up of Orchestra musicians, staff members, and members of the Orchestra's community partners. Two of the finalists will be invited to participate in the Orchestra's Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute Concert. All of the finalists will be recognized during the concert.

Guest conductor Raymond Harvey is music director of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and El Paso Opera. Mr. Harvey made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut conducting the Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute Concert in 2001. Mr. Harvey is joined in the 2005 Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute Concert by narrator Charlotte Blake Alston, a Philadelphia-based storyteller, narrator, and singer. Ms. Alston enjoys a close relationship with the Orchestra as the host of Sound All Around, the Orchestra's concert series for children ages 3 to 5, and as a guest host and narrator on the Orchestra's Family Concert and School Concert series. Ms. Alston, who in 1999 began studying West African history-telling traditions, has been a featured teller at the National Storytelling Festival and the National Festival of Black Storytelling.

Lucia Bradford is a recent graduate of Westminster Choir College, receiving her bachelor of music education degree in 2002 and a master of music degree in vocal performance and pedagogy in 2004. Ms. Bradford is a recipient of a 2003 Marian Anderson Encouragement Award.

Founded in 1900, The Philadelphia Orchestra has distinguished itself as one of the leading orchestras in the world through a century of acclaimed performances, historic international tours, best-selling recordings, and its unprecedented record of innovation in recording technologies and outreach. With only six music directors piloting The Philadelphia Orchestra through its first century, the ensemble has maintained an unparalleled cohesiveness and unity in artistic leadership.

This rich tradition is carried on by Christoph Eschenbach, who began his tenure as the Orchestra's seventh music director in September 2003. As Mr. Eschenbach and the Orchestra inaugurate a new era in the ensemble's esteemed history, the Orchestra has announced the launch of the public phase of a five-year, $125-million endowment campaign, entitled A Sound, A City, A Civilization. Commitments to the campaign include a lead gift of $50 million from the Annenberg Foundation, along with other major leadership gifts that have allowed the Orchestra to raise the original campaign goal from $75 million to $125 million.

In addition to Mr. Eschenbach's appointment as music director, the Orchestra has observed several important milestones in recent years. The Orchestra's 2002-2003 season celebrated Wolfgang Sawallisch's ten highly acclaimed years at the Orchestra's helm and paid tribute to his artistic achievements with the release of a Grammy-nominated three-disc set of Schumann recordings, the first recordings made in Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. The Orchestra moved to its new home at the Kimmel Center in December 2001, after celebrating its 100th Anniversary through a series of activities surrounding the year 2000, including the internationally televised gala Birthday Concert on November 16, 2000, a tour of Europe in 2000, and tours of Asia and the United States in 2001. A tour in the spring of 2003 took the Orchestra to nine cities in the United States, Mexico, and South America. Christoph Eschenbach and the Orchestra capped their first full season together with a tour of the music capitals of Europe in the spring of 2004.

The Philadelphia Orchestra annually touches the lives of more than 1 million music lovers worldwide through its performances (more than 300 concerts and other presentations each year), publications, recordings, and broadcasts. A major winter subscription season is presented in Philadelphia each year from September to May, in addition to education and community partnership programs. The Orchestra presents a series of concerts each year at New York's Carnegie Hall, performing encores of some of its acclaimed concerts from Philadelphia. Its summer schedule includes a month-long outdoor season in Philadelphia at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts, free concerts in local neighborhoods, and a three-week residency each August at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York.

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts hosts the Orchestra's home subscription concerts. The Center includes two performance spaces, the 2500-seat Verizon Hall, designed and built especially for the Orchestra, and the 650-seat Perelman Theater for chamber music concerts. Designed by architect Rafael Viñoly along with acoustician Russell Johnson of Artec Consultants Inc., the Kimmel Center provides the Orchestra with a state-of-the-art facility for concerts, recordings, and education activities. The landmark building is named in honor of Philadelphia businessman and philanthropist Sidney Kimmel, who gave the largest individual gift toward its construction. Mr. Kimmel has served on the Board of Directors of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1995.

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (KCPA) and the historic Academy of Music (where the Orchestra performed for 101 seasons) are operated together as a single cultural facility by Kimmel Center, Inc. (KCI). A variety of Philadelphia's other performing arts groups serve as resident companies for the two buildings. KCI owns, manages, supports, and maintains the KCPA. Kimmel Center, Inc., also manages the Academy of Music, owned by The Philadelphia Orchestra Association since 1957, and where the Orchestra continues to present the highly anticipated annual Academy Anniversary Concert and Ball. For more information on The Philadelphia Orchestra visit www.philorch.org.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. TRIBUTE CONCERT
January 10 at 8:00 p.m. - Monday evening - Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Raymond Harvey, conductor
Charlotte Blake Alston, host and speaker
Christoph Eschenbach, piano
Lucia Bradford, mezzo-soprano
Community Concert Choir (Jonathan Coopersmith, guest choir director)

Beethoven Overture to Fidelio
Arensky Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky
Tippett Excerpts from A Child of Our Time
Ellington/orch. Peress "Come Sunday," from Black, Brown, & Beige
Schubert "An die Musik"
Rossini "Cruda sorte"
Unknown/arr. Hogen "Were You There"
Johnson/arr. Carter "Lift Every Voice and Sing"
Dawson Third movement from Negro Folk Symphony
Steffe/arr. Wilhousky "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"

Sponsored by CIGNA

Tickets: $10-$37 (call for box seat prices), 215.893.1999 or www.philorch.org