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The Toledo Symphony’s North Star Festival Starts This Week
By Fletcher Word
Sojourner’s Truth Editor
In February, Black History
Month, the Toledo Symphony will contribute to the
celebration by starting a series of musical events as a
prelude to its North Star Festival, taking place in March
and April. The main performances of the North Star Festival
include: “Romance and Spirituals” at the Toledo Lucas County
Public Library on March 11; Kathleen Battle’s “Underground
Railroad – A Spiritual Journey” at the Toledo Museum of
Art’s Peristyle on March 16; the opera I Dream at the
Valentine Theatre on April 6 – 8 and “Classical Ellington”
at the Peristyle on April 20 and 21.
But woven between these
very big-time events is a series of performances – many of
which are free – binding together the over-all theme of the
North Star and the journey on the Underground Railroad that
helped slaves escape to freedom in the first part of the 19th
century.
“In this North Star
Festival, we highlight our local heritage and celebrate the
musical contributions of Black Americans throughout history
from the 1`850s top 1960s,” reads the introduction in the
Symphony’s promotional material.
A gallery event at the
Toledo School for the Arts on February 8 from 5:50 to 7:00
p.m. is the start of the North Star Festival; followed by
“Lift Ev’ry Voice: The Musical and Historical Legacy of the
Underground Railroad” in the Peristyle on February 15. On
that day the Toledo Symphony will collaborate with various
community organizations to explore Toledo’s Underground
Railroad history through song. This event is free to school
and homeschool students
On February 22, at the
Sanger Branch Library, members of the Symphony will present
A Preschool Storytime from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. for
preschoolers and their parents – also a free event.
The Orchestra will perform
at St. Martin de Porres on February 25 in a neighborhood
concert starting at 5 p.m. in a ticketed event titled
“Reaching for the Stars” and the Orchestra and the Toledo
Symphony Youth Quartet will perform at the Kent Branch
Library on February 27 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. with a
selection of spirituals prepared for the Lathrop House
titled “At the Purchaser’s Option” – also a free event.
Merwyn Siu is the artistic
administrator for the Toledo Symphony and the person
primarily responsible for organizing the North Star
Festival. “We wanted to do a festival and create something
that lasted,” he said of the effort. “A few things
percolated,” he noted of the various inspirations for the
program including the Symphony’s ability to work with
“wonderful quartet arrangements,” the fact that there had
been a collaboration with Lathrop House over the summer and
the fact of opera diva Kathleen Battle’s comeback and her
ongoing tribute to the Underground Railroad.
.“We’re trying to pursue
something in depth,” said Siu. “We need to learn and do a
better job of learning how to program for a number of
audiences.” The North Star Festival, said Siu, has given the
Symphony the opportunity to highlight a number of
African-American artists.
After February, as the
main four events take shape, there will still be several
introductory events leading to the “big four” including a “A
Conversation on Romance and Spirituals” at the West Toledo
Branch Library on March 1 from 6:30 to 7:15 p.m. which will
feature Merwyn Siu providing insights behind the programming
of the Chamber Series performance on March 11. Rehearsal for
“Romance and Spirituals” will also be open during the
afternoon of March 11`.
Then come the major events
in March and April. “Romance and Spirituals” will present
small groups of musicians performing traditional spirituals
and new compositions such as the hip-hop beats of
Haitian-American composer Daniel Bernard Roumain. Battle, a
world-renowned soprano and native of Portsmouth, Ohio, has
for several years been presenting a musical tribute to the
Underground Railroad only in those cities along the route of
the railroad. She was quickly convinced to add Toledo to her
schedule and participate in the North Star Festival. Douglas
Tappin’s I Dream opera, produced by Toledo Opera,
will have its world premiere here in Toledo. The opera is a
rhythm and blues recounting of the last 36 hours of Martin
Luther King Jr’s life. Ironically the student performance on
April 4 will occur exactly 50 years after the assassination
of the civil rights’ icon.
Jazz takes center stage on
April 20-21 with “Classical Ellington.” This will be in part
his version of The Nutcracker and his tone poem,
Harlem.
For more information on
the festival, call the Toledo Symphony at 419-246-8000 or go
online at toledosymphony.com/northstarfestival.
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