OUR HEARTS BEAT FOR BIRMINGHAM: LIVE!
The Musicians of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra would like to invite you to a series of free concerts later this month, where we take orchestral music out of the concert hall and present it directly to our community.
Serving the community through education and community outreach is often an overlooked aspect of being a professional musician, even though it is critically important. Without education and outreach, who will come to future concerts? How are we affecting and changing lives? What legacy do we leave behind?
The Musicians of the ASO have always understood the immense responsibility we have to be advocates and representatives of classical music and all it offers. That is why we started INSPIRE: a musician-led education program that brings a small group of musicians to the schools where it is impossible to have a full-size orchestra or to schools that cannot afford to attend one of our regular education concerts. INSPIRE has since been adopted by the ASO and is one of the most rewarding services we provide to our community. Over the years, musicians have also volunteered to play in nursing homes and hospital lobbies to reach people unable to come to us. Most recently, we provided virtual performances to COVID patients isolated in ICU wards at UAB hospital.
While all of these smaller-scale performances have been rewarding, both for the musicians and the community, one thing has been made abundantly clear over the past 18 months: we can, and should, do more. That is why the Musicians of the ASO have taken steps to bring the entire orchestra into our community, independently, free-of-charge, in a musician-led initiative called Our Hearts Beat for Birmingham. It allows us to do what we do best – play live music together as an orchestra. Please join us in person, or tune in to the Alabama Symphony Orchestra Musicians Facebook page for live streams of the performances. We love Birmingham and Alabama and the many different people who call it home. We hope you enjoy this gift from your Musicians of the ASO, from our hearts to yours, and we look forward to making this a long standing, much-loved tradition.
We will be providing two separate and unique programs for your enjoyment. While all the concerts are free to attend or stream, the Musicians have chosen three non-profits in the Birmingham community to support. If you enjoy the concerts, please show your appreciation to the musicians by donating to these fantastic organizations.
Debuting at Greater Emmanuel Temple Holiness Church, our first program contains works by Mozart, Fauré, Bartok, and Schubert. Featuring Fauré’s hauntingly beautiful melody in Pavane and culminating with a feeling of buoyant optimism in Schubert’s 5th Symphony, we promise you’ll leave the concert humming. The Greater Emmanuel Temple Holiness Church was founded in 1969 by Bishop Isaiah Jackson. The current Pastor, Bishop José Perry, Sr., is a native of Birmingham, Alabama. He is the founder of Perry Metropolitan Community Development, which specializes in low-income housing in Birmingham. This concert honors the Jefferson County Memorial Project.
The Jefferson County Memorial Project is a grassroots coalition composed of more than 35 community partners. As a multi-racial, multi-faith, multi-sector, and multi-generational group of committed volunteers, it researches documented racial terror victims and their descendants in Jefferson County. By educating the public on the importance of this history, they hope that Alabamians will confront said history and reconcile it for a better future. They are currently working on placing historical markers at lynching sites around the county and advocating for racial injustice reform in today’s world.
We will present a second diverse program at Temple Emanu-El. With works by Beethoven, Hovhaness, Mozart, and Mendelssohn, we will trawl our emotional depths – from the second movement of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, often used as a backdrop in cinema’s most dramatic moments, to the dark, slightly mischievous final movement of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4. Temple Emanu-El was founded in Birmingham in 1882 by early Jewish settlers. By 1886, the Temple’s membership had grown to 86 families, and the congregation laid the cornerstone for the first synagogue built in Jefferson County. By assuming a leadership role in civic affairs, these early settlers began a tradition of community involvement that continues among the Temple membership today. The current spiritual leaders, Rabbi Adam Wright and Cantor Robby Wittner, lead the congregation in embracing the philosophy of community and innovation in their programming and service to the Temple family and community-at-large.
Donations received during this concert will benefit Collat Jewish Family Services. First incorporated as a non-profit agency in 1989, CJFS focuses on supporting independence and enriched quality of life for older adults while providing professional counseling and social services for individuals and families of all ages. In keeping with Jewish values, CJFS serves people of all races, religions, and socio-economic levels by providing comprehensive assessments, care management, transportation, financial assistance, mental health services, in home personal care, respite care, and supplemental volunteer support.
In honor of Lester Siegel, who has generously agreed to act as Music Director for our performances, we will present both our programs at Canterbury United Methodist Church. Canterbury UMC, originally named Union Hill Methodist Church, was begun in 1867 by a group of believers who felt the need for a spiritual community. In 1948 this group merged with Mountain Brook Methodist Church and formed Canterbury. Both churches relocated to the current location, with the first building dedicated in 1952 and the sanctuary built in 1961. The congregation has grown throughout the years, becoming the indefatigable body of loving and caring believers it still is today.
One of the concerts the musicians most look forward to during the season is our Sensory Friendly Concert. Designed for people living with Autism Spectrum Disorder, sensory and communication disorders, or learning disabilities, this concert quickly became a personal favorite of the musicians. In recognition of that, we have chosen to highlight Mitchell’s Place in our Concerts at Canterbury UMC. Mitchell’s Place was established in 2005 after Nancy and Allen Meisler became frustrated by the lack of services and autism treatment options for their son, Mitchell. Realizing no such full-service facilities existed in the state of Alabama, they created Mitchell’s Place. Mitchell’s Place helps meet the growing need in Birmingham and Alabama for specialized services for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other developmental disabilities.
