ABOUT THE EVENT

Marin Alsop, conductor
Adia Evans, soprano*
Jazmine Olwalia, mezzo soprano*
Lawrence Barasa Kiharangwa, tenor*
Kevin Short, bass+
Heritage Signature Chorale
Stanley J. Thurston, president & artistic director

When the planned celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth in 2020 was necessarily altered by COVID, NOI+F Music Director Marin Alsop had to rethink her intention of leading productions of the immortal Symphony No. 9 on six continents. At the 2024 National Orchestral Institute + Festival, four years after the height of the pandemic, Maestra Alsop is finally back at the podium with Beethoven on the stand for a breathtaking performance of the Ninth Symphony, presented with a recently commissioned English translation for the symphony's final movement "Ode to Joy" poem by former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith. Smith's words will be rendered by members of the Heritage Signature Chorale of Washington, D.C., with soloists pooled from the UMD School of Music’s faculty, Maryland Opera Studio and alumni community. The evening begins with a 25th anniversary performance  of one of the most beautiful and regularly performed works of American contemporary composition, Jennifer Higdon's blue cathedral.

* Denotes University of Maryland alum
+ Denotes University of Maryland faculty 

PROGRAM
Higdon: blue cathedral
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor

FUNDING

The National Orchestral Institute + Festival is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, the Nicolae Bretan Music Foundation, the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music and The Marinus and Minna B. Koster Foundation.