The Rivers School & Conservatory Present Gala Concert May 14 at Jordan Hall

On Sunday evening, May 14 at 7 p.m. The Rivers School and Rivers School Conservatory are presenting a gala concert featuring The Rivers Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Men’s, Women’s, and Treble Choirs with soloist baritone Robert Honeysucker and Lois Shapiro as narrator. The program includes Saint Saens’ Carnival of the Animals and winners of The Rivers School Conservatory’s Concerto Competition.

At the core of this concert, however, is the world premiere of Francine Trester’s “Walkers in the Dawn.” This is a work for two choirs, orchestra, baritone, narrator, and orchestra set to the poems of Langston Hughes. The composer is a resident of Newton and she captured the lyricism, soulfulness and earnest feeling inherent in Langston’s writing to tell a four-part story of the human spirit - descending into the depths of despair wrought by ignorance, and rising through understanding and enlightenment. The title,"Walkers with the Dawn," comes from the last of Langston’s poems and from a place of hope and light. The composition aspires toward a conclusion that is as bright and shining as Hughes' own "Walkers with the sun and morning," ever advancing toward the twin stars of equity and freedom. It will be an extraordinary work, poignantly offered at a very challenging time for our national conscience.

In addition, Head of School Ned Parsons will be the narrator for the US Chamber Orchestra’s presentation of Camille Saint-Saens’ “Carnival of the Animals,” reading poems written by Ogden Nash. The concert also includes cellist Andrew Kim playing the first movement of Eduard Lalo’s Cello Concerto, Rivers Middle School student Katherine playing the first movement of Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 2 and Rivers senior Bathabile Khumalo singing Purcell’s “When I am laid to rest” from Dido and Aneaes and Mozart’s “Voi che sapete” from The Marriage of Figaro.

Tickets are available on line at http://www.riversschoolconservatory.org/event/carnival or at the Jordan Hall Box Office.