Raleigh Civic Chamber Orchestra Performs The Dream Is Alive: Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 8th

In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death, the Raleigh Civic Chamber Orchestra of NC State University will perform a program of music by African American composers. The concert will feature the world premiere of Sinfonietta of Dreams, a newly commissioned composition by Jeff Scott  (hornist in the internationally acclaimed wind quintet Imani Winds). It will also feature a gospel choir lead by Carolyn Colquitt, a pre-concert talk at 3pm led by Dr. Jason Miller about the story behind the Rocky Mount speech and its legacy, and a post-concert discussion.

The music of Sinfonietta of Dreams is based on a newly unearthed 1962 speech that Dr. King gave at a segregated high school in Rocky Mount, North Carolina several months prior to his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington. Until recently, no one beyond the crowd present for the live speech in 1962 had heard it.  After being recovered from a Rocky Mount library, it was remastered and played publicly for the first time. The speech is now believed to have inspired his famous Dream speech delivered in Washington nine months later. The performance of Sinfonietta will feature the orchestra playing along with recordings of the Rocky Mount speech. The concert will also include documentary footage about the speech.

Four other pieces by African American composers will be performed. “Working on the program for the concert has been an amazing experience discovering wonderful music by African American composers that deserves to be heard,” said Peter Askim, Director of the Raleigh Civic Chamber Orchestra.

The concert will be part of a series of collaborative events focused on Dr. King’s legacy on the NC State campus and beyond. It is presented in collaboration with the NC State African American Cultural Center and NC State LIVE.