Raleigh Civic Chamber Orchestra

The Way from Birmingham:

MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Sunday, March 30, 2025 at 4 PM
Stewart Theatre, Talley Student Union, Raleigh, NC
Peter Askim, Conductor
Nathan Leaf, Composer
Dr. Jason Miller, NC State English Professor

Featuring the World Premiere of a new work for chorus and orchestra by Nathan Leaf based on Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. 

Program:

Ludwig van Beethoven: Egmont Overture, Op. 84
Niloufar Nourbakhsh: Knell
Franz Joseph Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Christ
Carlos Simon: Breathe
Nathan Leaf: The Way from Birmingham for Chorus and Chamber Orchestra (World Premiere)

NC State Director of Choral Activities Nathan Leaf’s new work for chorus and orchestra explores Martin Luther King Jr.’s immortal words, written during his Birmingham imprisonment for protesting racial injustice. Centered on King’s deep commitment to truth andfreedom, and hiswillingness to suffer the consequences of standing up for principles, the work explores non-violence as a means to achieve a just society and a better world. NC State Professor of English Jason Miller will join the orchestra to speak about King’s work and its continuing relevance.

Kennedy Center Composer-in-Residence Carlos Simon’s Breathe draws inspiration from renowned theologian Howard Thurman, a spiritual advisor to King, whose Meditations of the Heart urges us to “stay put for a spell.” In this spirit, Simon’s spacious work provides an oasis of calm in our chaotic world, a reminder to us all to “simply reflect and breathe.”

Iranian-American composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh describes Knell as both a tribute to the memory of her recently deceased mother, and to the thousands of innocent Iranian people who lost their lives during the woman life freedom movement in Iran. She writes, “Formally, Knell functions as a prologue; I hope it’s a prologue to a future that is sparkling and bright,” like the memories of her mother’s necklace.

Franz Joseph Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ depicts the suffering and strength of Christ as he faced persecution and death. Music of gravity and transcendence, it is both tragic and uplifting in its depiction of non-violence in response to aggression and persecution. It is a powerful reminder of Christ’s admonition to “turn the other cheek.”

Ludwig van Beethoven’s powerful Egmont Overture tells the story of the Count of Egmont, condemned to death for standing up valiantly against oppression. Unwilling to surrender his principles and his belief in liberty, he is jailed and ultimately killed. The music was an unofficial anthem of the 1956 Hungarian revolution against Soviet oppression, and still resonates powerfully today.

Free admission for NC State Students, $10 for faculty, staff, and seniors, and $12 for the general public

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NC State students may request an exclusive coupon code at go.ncsu.edu/freeticket to claim one free ticket to this performance (March 16 at 10 AM through one hour before each concert).

Raleigh Civic Symphony Orchestra

Hymns of Hope and Healing

Sunday, April 13, 2025 at 4 PM
Stewart Theatre, Talley Student Union, Raleigh, NC
Peter Askim, Conductor
Michael R. Dudley Jr. , Composer
Dr. Olga Kleiankina, Piano Soloist
Tara Zaffuto Mullins, Choreographer

Featuring the World Premiere of  Michael R. Dudley, Jr.’s A Heretic’s Prayer for Orchestra 

Program:

Sergei Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2
Dr. Olga Kleiankina, Piano
Autumn Maria Reed: Selections from Mental Health Suite
Barbara Gallagher: Dancing into the Light
Michael Dudley, Jr.: The Heretic’s Prayer for Orchestra (World Premiere)
Michael Dudley, Jr.: …there is yet beauty 
Tara Zaffuto Mullins, Choreographer
Ludwig van Beethoven: Finale from Symphony No. 5

The Raleigh Civic Symphony, in collaboration with the NC State Department of Performing Arts & Technology, Arts NC State and the Raleigh Civic Symphony Association, present a program focused on art, mental wellness, and healing. Through music, dance, and visual art, Hymns of Hope and Healing takes us on a journey through adversity, emerging triumphant through the power of the human spirit and creativity.

The arts can be a powerful means of self-discovery, a way to make sense of the world and our place in it. As the painter Robert Motherwell said, “I don’t know what I think until I paint it.” Hymns of Hope and Healing centers on the powerful ways that art seeks at once to understand and to heal ourselves, our communities, and our world. Each composer on the program uses art in their own way to navigate grief, adversity, and complicated emotions.

Despondent after the critical failure of his First Symphony, Sergei Rachmaninov retreated from the world, eventually turning to therapy to heal. The first music written after he emerged from his deep depression was his Piano Concerto No. 2, one of the most sweeping, powerful, and beloved pieces of music ever written – an ode to resilience and the human spirit.

Dancing into the Light was composed by Wilmington composer Barbara Gallagher to honor her mother, who was diagnosed with cancer. Pure in its beauty and lyricism, it serves as both a tribute and a touchstone of hope. 

Composer Michael Dudley Jr. creates music as a means of finding hope, beauty, and community, in a world where those qualities are sometimes in short supply. At once meditative and deeply passionate, both A Heretic’s Prayer for Orchestra (World Premiere) and …there will be beauty connect us to a higher realm – an oasis of deep spirituality, community, and authenticity. NC State choreographer Tara Zaffuto Mullins will create choreography for the serenely powerful … there will be beauty.

Autumn Maria Reed’s Mental Health Suite honors various symptoms of acquired mental illness and strives to give hope to those contending with turmoil.  She writes, “I spent my early adulthood struggling, but I have found light, and I hope that others struggling will find their light.” 

The concert concludes with the radiant, triumphant finale of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, perhaps the most famous symphony ever written. Driven almost to suicide by his deafness, Beethoven found solace, meaning, and a life-affirming sense of purpose in the act of creation. He wrote: “…only Art it was that withheld me, ah it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had produced all that I felt called upon me to produce, and so I endured…” A journey from darkness to light, the last movement represents Beethoven’s (and humanity’s)  triumph of the human spirit over adversity, and the salvation of art.

Free admission for NC State Students, $10 for faculty, staff, and seniors, and $12 for the general public

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We are committed to accessibility for all audience members. Our events held at Stewart Theatre are run by the NC State Department of Performing Arts and Technology and NC State University Theatre. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, NC State will honor requests for reasonable accommodations made by individuals with disabilities. Send direct accommodation requests to JoAnne Sutton. For more information about accessibility, please visit NC State University Theatre Accessibility Services.