AKRON, Ohio — The Akron Symphony Orchestra’s Gospel Meets Symphony is set to celebrate 30 years of performing inspirational songs that feature local musicians of every stripe.
Gospel Meets Symphony is set for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 11 at E. J. Thomas Hall.
The annual performance melds the sounds of the Akron Symphony Orchestra with the voices of gospel musicians from 70 area churches, said Akron Symphony Orchestra Conductor Christopher Wilkins.
“People who attend Gospel Meets Symphony will say it is the most beautiful and powerful energy they've ever heard in a concert,” Wilkins said.
This year’s performance features Cleveland native Shirley Daley, a founding member of Grammy-nominated Anthony Brown and group therAPy.
One of the reasons Gospel Meets Symphony is special, Wilkins said, is because it offers a platform for talented local musicians, many of whom perform on Sundays at area churches, who might otherwise never have an opportunity to take part in this type of performance.
“It's the community members — church musicians, professional musicians, teachers or people who are coming into it relatively inexperienced — who maybe have never performed live music publicly before a paying audience,” Wilkins said. “Even the soloists who are performing with us are almost invariably members of that choir. So, they're stepping out with the choir to come forth, and say ‘Hello’ in front of a very large orchestra.”
Gospel Meets Symphony Choirmaster Jonathon Turner, who directs choral activities at Lutheran High School East and serves as senior pastor at Israelite Missionary Baptist Church, describes the performance as “a beautiful display of community.”
“Gospel music is probably one of the furthest things from classical music in our initial perception, unless you put it all together and you start to realize we're really not so different,” Turner said. “Our approaches may be different, our experiences with the music may be different, but it proves that it is indeed that universal language that we all came to speak, in concert, once a year, at this great event.”
Turner, who graduated from Akron’s Garfield High School, was raised in a household filled with music and musical instruments, and grew up in a traditional Black church, he said.
He applies much of his knowledge and experience to helping shape the lives of young musicians, he said.
To that end, joining the Gospel Meets Symphony Choir, will be GMS 2.0, a junior choir showcasing the talents of area students age 10 to 18, he said.
This year, for the first time, the choir and full orchestra will release a single from Gospel Meets Symphony, an original piece written by Turner, entitled “My Heavenly Father.”
Through both song choice and the dynamics of the performance, the concert is designed to impart the essence of a worship service, Wilkins said.
“So, it opens with an anthem and then, there's sort of a praise and worship song,” he said. “Then, we often have works to take us deeper in to the spirit, into the moment.”
Also, as in past years, the concert follows a subtle theme, which this year is mental health.
Without being “preachy” the performance will speak to the emotional and spiritual facet of mental wellness, communicating a sense of comfort, Turner said.
“So, the person that is well-churched can receive kind of that ‘aha moment’ and then, that person that's not well-churched can also be encouraged that, ‘H,ey, I've got some hope to push on, that things are going to get better,’” he said.
Gospel Meets Symphony can resonate with people who aren’t necessarily gospel music or symphonic music fans, Turner said.
“It’s so freeing and so welcoming and participatory,” he said. “There's no way you could be there and not be a part of the kind of infectious music community that happens for those 90 or so minutes of music.”
Each year, the legacies of past participants of Gospel Meets Symphony live on in current performers, Wilkins said.
“There are people who have sung from the very first year,” he said. “Then there's this other interesting factor when you've been doing it for 30 years. You have children now in the chorus, when their parents were in the original choir. And now, we even have some examples of three generations participating in the choir, which is really amazing.”
Gospel Meets Symphony was originally launched in 1993 as a fundraiser to record the African-American Composers' Project, Wilkins said. The recording features original compositions from composers David Baker, William Banfield and Billy Childs.
The effort was led by the late Ann Lane Gates, who had conducted similar concerts with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and chaired the event with the help of others, he said.
For that first concert, more than 125 singers from 37 Akron churches joined the symphony for an evening at the Akron Civic Theatre, according to the orchestra’s website.
Visit the Akron Symphony Orchestra website for more information on Gospel Meets Symphony at the E.J. Thomas Center, located on the University of Akron campus, 198 Hill St. in Akron.
A video celebrating the 20th anniversary of Gospel Meets Symphony is available to view online.