Acclaimed Spoken-word artist and poet Marc Bamuthi Joseph appears as soloist/speaker in DBR’s Forgiveness
ALBANY, NY – The two-time GRAMMY Award-winning Albany Symphony is thrilled to present two concerts in January as well as an open rehearsal for students and symphony donors. The program will feature Beethoven’s glorious evocation of nature, his “Pastoral” Symphony (Symphony No. 6), and recent works by Carlos Simon and Daniel Bernard Roumain at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on Saturday, January 11 at 7:30pm and Sunday, January 12 at 3:00pm. An open rehearsal will take place on Thursday, January 9 at 7:00pm. Educators and students interested in attending the open rehearsal should contact the Albany Symphony staff team at PatronServices@AlbanySymphony.com or (518) 465-4755.
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, known as the Pastoral Symphony, was completed in 1808. Beethoven found solace in the natural world from the isolation he felt as a result of his deafness. He spent countless hours wandering the woods outside Vienna, conceptualizing his new works. The Sixth Symphony is his heartfelt, deeply emotional depiction of nature and of his personal struggle to come to grips with his disability. Beethoven’s first sketches of the Pastoral Symphony appeared in 1802 and the work was composed simultaneously with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. He premiered both symphonies in Vienna in 1808. The symphony’s five movements each evoke a different aspect of nature in this most programmatic of his symphonies.
Composer Daniel Bernard Roumain and spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph collaborated on Forgiveness, Suite for Spoken Word & Orchestra, which was presented at the Albany Symphony’s American Music Festival in 2023. The work, its texts, and the themes it explores, grew out of writing workshops Joseph led with members of the Capital Region community during the orchestra’s three-year Convergence Project. “This work is a marriage between Marc’s words, my music, and our ideas of how words and (orchestral) music can have impact and power as we navigate the roles we have to play within a culture in which we frequently have an inability to see, hear, and forgive one another. Each of the four movements presents Marc’s ideas on forgiveness (i.e., 'Redemption', Reconciliation', 'Discernment', and 'Grace'). The music responds to these concepts in various ways at different points: as underscoring; as commentary; as a raucous, percussive crowd; or as a 'Greek Chorus', where Marc’s call elicits a response from the brass, woodwinds and string sections,” said Roumain.
Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) is a composer who sees his craft as a collaboration with artists, organizations and communities within the farming and framing of ideas. He is a prolific and endlessly collaborative composer, performer, educator, and social entrepreneur. Roumain has worked with artists from J’NaiBridges, Lady Gaga and Philip Glass to Bill T. Jones, Marin Alsop and Anna Deavere Smith.
Marc Bamuthi Joseph is Vice President and Artistic Director of Social Impact at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center. He is a 2017 TED Global Fellow, an inaugural recipient of the Guggenheim Social Practice Initiative, and an honoree of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship. He is also the winner of the 2011 Herb Alpert Award in Theatre, and an inaugural recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. In the Spring of 2022, he was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was most recently welcomed into the 2023-24 Emerson Collective Dial Fellowship. An internationally renowned cultural strategist, Bamuthi is the co-creator of the paradigm-shifting allyship training HEALING FORWARD™. He has lectured in 25 different countries and his TED talk “You Have The Rite” has been viewed more than five million times.
“We are so proud to feature such thought provoking, socially committed composers and creators on our January programs,” said Albany Symphony Heinrich Medicus Music Director, David Alan Miller. “The heroic spirit of Beethoven pervades these programs. Not only are we performing one of Beethoven’s most beloved and unique symphonies, but Daniel and Marc’s collaboration and Carlos’ Beethoven homage strongly reflect the Beethovenian ideals of truth, equality, and a celebration of the unquenchable power of the human spirit. I promise this will be an unforgettable, one-of-a-kind experience, especially for anyone who has not witnessed one of Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s mesmerizing spoken word performances.”
Carlos Simon’s Fate Now Conquers was inspired by a 1815 journal entry from Beethoven’s notebook, a quote from Homer’s Iliad. “Using the beautifully fluid harmonic structure of the 2nd movement of Beethoven’s 7th symphony, I have composed musical gestures that are representative of the unpredictable ways of fate. Jolting stabs, coupled with an agitated groove with every persona. Frenzied arpeggios in the strings that morph into an ambiguous cloud of free-flowing running passages depicts the uncertainty of life that hovers over us,” said Simon. “We know that Beethoven strived to overcome many obstacles in his life and documented his aspirations to prevail, despite his ailments. Whatever the specific reason for including this particularly profound passage from the Iliad, in the end, it seems that Beethoven relinquished to fate. Fate now conquers.”
The 2024-2025 season runs through the American Music Festival in June. Season subscriptions are available and offer flexibility, convenience, and price savings. Through the Nielsen Associates’ Student Access Program, students can purchase discount subscriptions and enjoy the full benefits of being a subscriber for as little as $45. To purchase a subscription or single tickets, visit albanysymphony.com or call the Box Office at 518-694-3300