In Revolutionary spirit, orchestra to strike up a ’rebellious tune’
The Acton Orchestra will play the sounds of the season — the Revolutionary season.
“Every April 19th, as a youth growing up in Acton, I could hear the distant sounds of the fifes, drums, and musket fire of the Minutemen marching to Acton’s North Bridge to commemorate the battle for our nation’s freedom,” says Richard Sebring.
“Legend holds that, in 1775, the Minutemen played the rebellious Scottish tune ‘The White Cockade’ as they prepared to engage the British Regulars at the North Bridge,” adds Sebring, who grew up in Acton and lives in Wayland.
Principal horn of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Sebring will play Mozart’s “Horn Concerto No. 3” and his arrangement of “The White Cockade” at the Acton Orchestra’s American Heritage concerts on March 29 and 30 at 51 Walden Performing Arts Center.
“Truth or myth, [‘The White Cockade’] was a well-known song of the times, even arranged by such esteemed composers as Franz Joseph Haydn,” Sebring says. “It seems appropriate to share this little tune in celebration of Concord250.”
World premiere
Also on the program will be the world premiere of “A Beacon of Hope” by Jeff Beal, commissioned by the orchestra to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution’s beginning.
A five-time Emmy-winning composer of soundtracks for film and television, Beal has written music for concerts, theater, and dance. He created the theme and score for the Netflix series “House of Cards.”
Other American compositions to be featured are Florence Price’s “Symphony No. 3,” Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide Overture,” and “The Liberty Bell March” by John Philip Sousa. Zeke Feltrow, who is in his second season with the orchestra, will conduct.
Inspired by spirituals
Price, a 1906 graduate of the New England Conservatory, was the first African American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, according to orchestra board president Carol Sohn. Price wrote “Symphony No. 3” in 1938 and 1939 and included melodies inspired by spirituals and a dance called a juba that enslaved people brought to the southern U.S. from Africa.
Her piece, which premiered in 1940 but was not performed again until 2001, remained unpublished until 2008 but is now played more frequently.
The American Heritage concerts are funded in part by grants from the Acton-Boxborough, Bedford, Carlisle, and Acton cultural councils, local agencies supported by the Mass Cultural Council.
“American Heritage” will be presented at 8 p.m. March 29 and at 2:30 p.m. on March 30, at 51 Walden Performing Arts Center. Feltrow and other orchestra members will offer a pre-concert discussion an hour before each performance. Admission for adults and seniors is $25 and is free for youth under 18. For tickets and information call 978-369-4967 or visit concordorchestra.com.
