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Hail the heroes
By JOY DAVIS-PLATT, Times Staff Writer
At a time when the threat of war looms over the country, the Hernando Symphony Orchestra will remind its audiences of some words of wisdom from the past. The orchestra opens its February concert series, titled "Presidents and Kings," on Saturday night with a program highlighted by Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait. "It's a very dramatic and inspiring piece," said orchestra conductor Wayne Raymond. "Very simply, it's a marriage of Abraham Lincoln's writings and Copland's orchestration." As one of America's premier composers, Copland is most identified with orchestral music. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he strove to bring the perspective of a composer born and raised in the United States to his music. When choosing an American hero for his musical portrait, he chose to illustrate our 16th president and to show Lincoln's greatness through excerpts of his speeches and letters from the Civil War era. They deal with the central issue of the struggles for justice and against slavery. In his score, Copland directs the sound of the orchestra into slowly growing pictures of sound, using themes from American folk tunes to underscore Lincoln's words. Many of the techniques used have become conventions in composition for stage, film and television. "The words are designed to be cued with the music," said local actor Vince Vanni, who will perform the dramatic reading with the orchestra. "It's like an expressive narrative." Vanni said he will call more on his public speaking skills than his acting talents. "This is not a performance as much as it is a narration," said Vanni, who first met Raymond in 1993 when they performed Oliver at Stage West Community Playhouse. "If you remember your American history, we've all heard Lincoln's words, but there is something very powerful about the combination of the words and the music." The rest of the concert features a mix of modern and classical music chosen for the concert's theme. Included will be Summon the Heroes by John Williams, American Symphony by Kamen and Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks. The finale for the concert, Lowden's Armed Forces Salute, will include representatives from all of the armed forces. "This is an idea I've had in my head for a while," said Raymond. "The (Presidents and Kings) theme was a way to link these pieces of music in a coherent way." At a glanceWHAT: Hernando Symphony Orchestra's February concert series, "Presidents and Kings." WHEN/WHERE: 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Hernando High School Performing Arts Center, 700 Bell Ave., Brooksville; 7:30 p.m. Feb. 11 at Springstead Theatre, 3300 Mariner Blvd., Spring Hill; and 2 p.m. Feb. 16 at Springstead Theatre. TICKETS: All seats are $9. For Sunday tickets, call 686-7716; for Tuesday tickets, call 686-5334; for Saturday tickets, call 799-8507.
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