Cleveland Orchestra's MLK Celebration To Air Nationally

From APT: American Public Television (APT), a leading syndicator of top-rated programming to the country’s public television stations, selected ideastream’s production, “The Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Concert with The Cleveland Orchestra,” for national distribution. Stations across the United States have the opportunity to select the program for broadcast beginning in January 2020. In celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Northeast Ohio audiences can watch the local broadcast of the program Sunday, January 19 at 6 p.m. and Monday, January 20 at 10 p.m. on WVIZ/PBS ideastream.

The program follows The Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by music director Franz Welser-Möst, through a moving and inspiring community celebration that honors the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “The Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Concert with The Cleveland Orchestra” is a tribute to the slain civil rights leader as told through music and Dr. King’s own words. The inspiring production features music specially selected to relate to the themes of Dr. King’s speeches, which are shown throughout the hour-long program.

For more than 35 years, The Cleveland Orchestra has celebrated Dr. King’s legacy by opening the doors to its beautiful Severance Hall home for a free, annual concert. In this hour-long televised production, the Orchestra is joined by host James Pickens, Jr., a Cleveland native best known for his portrayal of Dr. Richard Webber on “Grey’s Anatomy” and guest soloist Ryan Speedo Green. Green has been called “a show stopper” by The New York Times and has been featured on “60 Minutes.” An all-Cleveland community volunteer chorus, the Martin Luther King Celebration Chorus directed by Dr. William Henry Caldwell, adds to the program offering sounds that are at times joyful and exuberant, and at times soulful and heartfelt.

“The Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Concert with The Cleveland Orchestra” includes music from the classical repertoire along with hymns, spirituals and anthems from the civil rights era. Two arrangements commissioned especially for the concert are featured: “Down by the Riverside” and “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.” The rousing conclusion of the concert features The Cleveland Orchestra along with the Martin Luther King Celebration Chorus and the entire audience joining together for one of the most cherished songs of the civil rights movement, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

The program includes:

· Traditional/arr. Caldwell – “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn me ‘Round”

· Beethoven – Overture to “Egmont”

· Mendelssohn – “Lord God of Abraham” from “Elijah”

· Walker – “Lyric for Strings”

· Traditional/arr. Floyd – “Down by the Riverside”; arrangement commissioned for “The Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Concert with The Cleveland Orchestra”

· Verdi – “Va pensiero” (“Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves”) from “Nabucco”

· Respighi – “Pines of the Appian Way” from “Pines of Rome”

· Steffe/arr. Wilhousky – “Battle Hymn of the Republic”

· Dorsey/arr. Floyd – “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”; arrangement commissioned for “The Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Concert with The Cleveland Orchestra”

· Mendelssohn – “Movement No. 4” from “Symphony No. 5” (“Reformation”)

· Johnson/arr. Smith – “Lift Every Voice and Sing”

Recorded in 2018, “The Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Concert with The Cleveland Orchestra” is a production of WVIZ/PBS ideastream in partnership with The Cleveland Orchestra. Funding is provided by KeyBank.

About ideastream

ideastream serves the people of Northeast Ohio as a trusted and dynamic multimedia source for illuminating the world around us. Publicly supported and locally owned, ideastream is indispensable and highly valued for its unique ability to strengthen our community. ideastream is the consolidation of WVIZ/PBS, with five channels of public television service (WVIZ/PBS-HD, WVIZ/PBS Ohio, WVIZ/PBS World, WVIZ/PBS Create, and WVIZ/PBS Kids); 90.3 WCPN, Northeast Ohio’s NPR news and public affairs radio station; WCLV 104.9, Northeast Ohio’s classical music radio station; ideastream Education, with educational resources, services and the award-winning children’s series NewsDepth; and management of The Ohio Channel and the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau on behalf of all Ohio’s public broadcasting stations. For more information about ideastream’s rich legacy of innovation and credible content, visit ideastream.org.

This press release was produced by APT. The views are the author's own.