In what is the strangest year any of us can remember, one musical tribute to the incoming president and vice president will also be unusual.

In an effort to promote some badly needed “hope and harmony,” conductor Marin Alsop and Classical Movements, a concert tour company for classical orchestras and choirs, have come together to honor the inauguration next week of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They will present a livestream performance by the Hope & Harmony Ensemble comprised of 14 musicians from 14 American orchestras. Principal hornist Elizabeth Freimuth will represent the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

The livestream over social media and orchestra websites will be at noon EST on Jan. 19 — the day before the inauguration. The music will feature Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man (which Copland wrote for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as a wartime fanfare) and Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, composed by American composer Joan Tower, the first woman to win the Grawemeyer Award in music. Tower’s Fanfare is often viewed as a response to Copland.

The works to be conducted by Alsop will honor Joe Biden with Copland’s Fanfare. Tower’s Fanfare honors Kamala Harris as the nation’s first female vice-president.

There is unifying symbolism in the coming together of 14 musicians from across the nation, from sea to shining sea.Read More »