Community-wide Lincoln Festival to kick off on Jan. 23

Dec 30, 2008

For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie Matlow 464-7071

National spotlight on Spokane with Festival endorsed by Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission

Spokane, WA - 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 Spokane Symphony has commissioned one of America’s leading contemporary classical composers, Michael Daugherty to compose Letters from Lincoln for orchestra and baritone. 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.

The Festival will officially begin with ceremonies at the Spokane’s Lincoln Statue (if weather permits) and at City Hall’s Council Chambers on Jan. 23 at 11 a.m.

The first Festival performance will be a family concert on Saturday, Jan. 24, “The World 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. Pre-concert activities will feature 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.

In conjunction with the Festival, the Chase Gallery will present "A House Divided: The Legacy of Lincoln," a group art exhibition featuring artwork by Greg duMonthier, Rhea Giffin, Tobe Harvey, Scott Kolbo, Garric Simonsen, and Joe Tomlinson.  The exhibition will run between Jan. 6 and Feb. 27. The Chase Gallery 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 11^th Annual Spokane International Film Festival will participate in the Lincoln Festival with “a festival within the festival” through the showing of Fauborg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans directed by Lolis Eric Elie and Dawn Logsdon. The showing will be Saturday, Feb. 14, noon, at River Park Square AMC.

Chamber Soirees entitled “Music Lincoln Should Have Heard”will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 3 and 4 at Davenport Hotel and Feb. 5 in the Jacklin Arts and Cultural Center at the Old Church in Post Falls. The program will feature music from the mid 1800s including selections by Strauss, Puccini and Schumann. The popular soiree programs are performed by chamber groups from within the Spokane Symphony.

Part of a 30-city North American tour, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater’s Ailey II will appear at Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox on Sunday, Feb. 22 at 3 p.m.  Ailey II is universally renowned for merging the spirit and energy of the country's best young dance talent with the passion and creative vision of today's most outstanding emerging choreographers. Alvin Ailey personally appointed former Ailey member, Sylvia Waters, as Artistic Director in 1974. Under her direction, Ailey II has become one of the most popular dance companies in the country, combining a rigorous touring schedule with extensive community outreach programs. This program is presented as part of the Fox Presents series.

West Valley School District, in a partnership with Eastern Washington University, will also participate in the festival. Each school in the district will have activities currently being developed.

Daugherty will be in Spokane for a Composer-in-Residence program with activities being planned for Feb. 25-27 at Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox.

Letters from Lincoln was commissioned by the Spokane Symphony and funded by the Bruce Ferden Endowment Fund for New Music.  The late Bruce Ferden, who was music director of the Spokane Symphony for six years ending in 1991, was a champion of new music. The fund to finance the creation of new music was created as a memorial to his creative life. The performances at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 28 and 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 1 are underwritten by Itron and Betty Kiemle.

Daugherty, one of the most commissioned, performed and recorded composers on the American concert music scene today, was chosen by Spokane Symphony Music Director Eckart Preu to write the tribute to Abraham Lincoln’s Bicentennial because his music is rich with cultural and political allusions and bears the stamp of classic modernism, with colliding tonalities and blocks of sound; at the same time, his melodies can be eloquent and stirring.

Daugherty has been hailed by The Times (London) as “a master icon maker” with a “maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear”.  Daugherty first came to international attention when the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Zinman, performed his Metropolis Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 1994 and the Houston Grand Opera premiered his opera Jackie O in 1996.  Since that time, his music has entered the orchestral, band, opera and chamber music repertory and made him, according to the League of American Orchestras, one of the 10 most performed living American composers.

Because Lincoln was such a famous orator, Preu believed this piece must have words, and that those words should be sung by one of the world’s leading baritones and Spokane native Thomas Hampson.  According to operacritic.com, “Thomas Hampson possesses one of today’s most beautiful voices, due to an extraordinary symbiosis of vocal and performing powers. To tell stories, to bring them to life, to move and touch us, this is what matters most to him when he appears on stage.”

Following a very successful career in Europe, Hampson recently moved back to New York where he has been receiving rave reviews for performances at the Metropolitan Opera. His musical versatility has allowed him to be equally successful in opera, operetta, oratorio and musical theater. Hampson made his debut with the Spokane Symphony at the Fox Theater while a student at Eastern Washington University. He was especially supportive of the restoration of the Fox Theater and presented a benefit concert as part of the opening of the newly restored theater as Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox in December 2007.

The cutting edge high-speed communication technology provided by the Internet2 capacity at the newly restored Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox will expand access to the festival activities with the potential to reach to audiences across the country and the world. 

“The Spokane Symphony and Fox Theater Spokane are working together to include groups from throughout the community in this exciting Lincoln Festival celebration. Not only does it honor one of our greatest presidents, it celebrates the rich cultural offerings of our community,” said Brenda Nienhouse, executive director of the Spokane Symphony and Fox Theater Spokane.

Tickets for performances featured in the Lincoln Festival are available at the Martin Woldson Theater Box Office, 1001 W. Sprague, Spokane, WA, at 509-624-1200 and at www.spokanesymphony.org or www.martinwoldsontheater.com/.

For a complete schedule of Festival activities (including those yet to be announced) go to www.spokanesymphony.org or www.martinwoldsontheater.com/.

For additional information, photos or interviews, contact the Spokane Symphony Marketing Director Annie Matlow at 509-464-7071.