Lincoln Festival kicks off with Jan 23 ceremonies at statue, city hall

Jan 15, 2009

For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie Matlow 464-7071

Family concert features ethnic music of those who came west and fun  pre-concert activities 

 

The Spokane Symphony has stepped up to create a major cultural element of the national celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s 200^th Birthday with the commissioning and performance of a symphonic work around Lincoln’s writing. The multi-disciplinary festival kicks off with ceremonies at the Lincoln Statue at the corner of Main and Monroe, weather permitting, at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 23.

 

The ceremonies will then move to the City Council Chambers in City Hall. If case of bad weather, the complete program will be in Council Chambers. In addition to a mayoral proclamation, the West Valley will play, a groups of drama students from North Central High School will present a choral reading of the Gettysburg Address, and Karen Mobley of the Spokane Arts Commission will introduce the art exhibit, “A House Divided: The Legacy of Lincoln,” currently in the Chase gallery next to the chambers.

 

"A House Divided: The Legacy of Lincoln," a group art exhibition presented as part of the Lincoln Festival featuring artwork by Greg duMonthier, Rhea Giffin, Tobe Harvey, Scott Kolbo, Garric Simonsen, and Joe Tomlinson.  The exhibition will run until Feb. 27. The ChaseGallery is located in City Hall at 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. in Spokane.  An artist reception will be held in conjunction with Visual Arts Tour on Friday, Feb. 6, 5 to 9 p.m.  Gallery hours are Monday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibit is presented through the Spokane Arts Commission.

 

The first Festival performance will be a family concert on Saturday, Jan. 24, “TheWorld Comes West,” about how Lincoln’s Homestead Act of 1865 brought cultural diversity to our area. The program will feature music brought to the west by the homesteading ethnic groups. Among the selections the Spokane Symphony will play in this hour-long concert for families are: Dvorak’s “New World Symphony”, “Empress of the Pagodas” by Ravel, Bartok’s “Romanian Folk Dances” and Gaelic Storm’s arrangement of “An Irish Party in Third Class.”

 

Pre-concert activities will feature a folk dance demonstration by Silver Spurs Youth Folk Dancers, Age of Elegance Traveling Trunk from the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture with period clothing, and an Instrument Petting Zoo with some instruments not featured in previous programs. The pre-concert activities begin at 1 p.m. and the concert at 2 p.m. at Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox.

 

The festival climax is the performance of the Letters from Lincoln for orchestra and baritone that the Spokane Symphony commissioned one of America’s leading contemporary classical composers, Michael Daugherty to compose. Thomas Hampson, internationally acclaimed baritone who began his career with the Spokane Symphony, will perform the world premiere of the work with the Spokane Symphony on Feb. 28 and March 1, 2009 at Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox.

 

The presence of Daugherty and Hampson will bring the national spotlight on this event, allowing Spokane to create a lasting legacy of Lincoln themes that will endure beyond the bicentennial. The concert will be presented as the climatic end of a five-week multidisciplinary festival of music, dance, drama and visual arts.  The festival is sanctioned by the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and funding has been received from the Inland Northwest Community Foundation.

 

Tickets for the Family Concert,“The World Comes West,” are $10 for adults and $5 for children. Tickets for Letters from Lincoln World Premiere, which is part of the Classics series, are $54, $50, $42 and $32 for the Saturday evening performance, and are $51, $47, $39 and $28 for the Sunday Matinee.  Tickets are available in advance at the Spokane Symphony Ticket office, 1001 W. Sprague, or by calling 509-624-1200. Tickets are also available at all TicketsWest outlets or by calling 1-800-325-SEAT, or at spokanesymphony.org.