King Celebration Concert

choir singing choir singing choir singing choir singing [audience applauds] [applause ends] music begins music continues Lift every voice and sing!

Lift every voice and sing til earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of liberty.

Let our rejoicing rise high as the listning skies; Let it resound loud as the rol Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on, Let us march on til victory is won!

orchestral music Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastning rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died.

Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come, Oh, we have come over a way that with tears has been watered.

Oh, we have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Out of the gloomy past, til now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

orchestral music resumes God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way, Thou who hast by Thy might led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

orchestral music resumes Lest our feet stray from the p our God, where we met Thee, Lest our hearts, drunk with th wine of the world, we forget The Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand, True to our God, true to our native land!

Amen!

Amen!

[audience applauds] Hello, everybody.

Hello, everybody.

I am the proud pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church.

And Senator and servant of the great of the state of Georgia.

Let me be really honest, I can barely contain my excitement tonight.

It has long been my dream that we would bring the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra back to the Ebenezer Sanctuary, give them a great big round of a Give them a great big round of a The church is the place where in our tradition, we have never embraced this dich between the sacred and the secul Jazz, the blues, the spirituals, the gospel all come from the sam mingled with the European classi the anguished ruminations of a subjugated people speaking to God in their own voice.

In closingand nobody believes a Baptist preacher when he says in closing, [audience laughs] He loved to talk about Franz Schubert's Symphony No.

8.

It is an unfinished symphony, and scholars debate about why he didn't finish, but life is an unfinished sympho Dr.

King used to remind us.

And so, in the words of Dr.

King, may the jangling discords of our be transformed into a wonderful symphony of love and brotherhood.

Bless all of you.

Thank you so much for being here tonight.

[audience applauds] background music I'm Jennifer Barlament, I'm the Director of the Atlanta Symphon Orchestra.

I was walking through the Memorial Arts Building of the Woodruff Arts Center and headed to the parking garage and I ran into, Reverend Warnock, who had been at the art museum for an event.

And so I said, hey, Reverend Warnock, nice to meet you.

And sort of introduced myself an just had a really nice conversation about music and how much he loves music, how great the acoustics are here at and how the orchestra and the ch had had this relationship in the past, and so he basically said, well, come on down, let's do something togethe And here we are just a few month later, which is sort of lightnin when it comes to planning an orchestra concert for us.

I think the program was put together so brilliantly, by the ASO team and Dr.

Turner and her team.

It really was, sort of a meeting of great minds And all of the elements have a specific purpose, and they all come together for an important reason.

I see this as two of the most im cultural institutions in Atlanta And, those relationships we've h the past has been important to u And then also, Carlos Simon and Joel Thompson are two wonderful young composer who were here in Atlanta.

They grew up here.

They came to concerts at the Atlanta Symphony They had a chance to hear the or and that was actually part of their story of how they were inspired to become composers.

So it feels very full circle, and it also feels very authentic to Atlanta.

to have their works in the progr ( background music ends ) My name is Joel Thompson, and I' the composer in residence at Hou Houston Grand Opera.

Atlanta has been instrumental to my development as a human being and as an artis Im an Emory graduate.

Dr.

King is always an influence as a young Black person here in Atlanta, down the street from where, you know, the birthplace civil rights in this country, his words definitely echoed in m I had been asked by my mentor, Dr.

Eric Nelson, to set Dr.

King's words to musi actually, to his I Have a Dream speech, but I actually ended up steering in a different directio I felt that his words already had a musicality of their own that I didn't want to interfere And, so I was already in the mode of Dr.

King and trying to figure out how I c in this classical music space, center the many of the philosoph principles that he advocated for during his life.

This was my, my way of doing tha with this little act of resistan The act of resistance really is background music ends orchestral music () orchestral music fades orchestral music resumes choir singing orchestral music fades [audience applauds] Im Carlos Simon and I am a composer.

I'm a graduate of Morehouse Coll and so when I was a student ther I knew about the legacy of Martin Luther King.

Being a native of this city, Atl I grew up in East Point, Georgia and I always learned about the l I grew up in East Point, Georgia and I always learned about the legacy of Ebenezer and Dr.

King and how it impacted the world.

Actually, as a student at Moreho we actually performed with the Atlanta Symphony, and that was my first time perfo and seeing a live orchestra on stage and it just blew my min So I grew up in the Pentecostal church here in Atlanta.

My father was a preacher, and ac come from a very long line of pr And I wanted to write a piece that really paid homage to my, my cultural and my, my heritage.

My mom played trombone in the ch and so I feature the trombone se quite a bit in the piece.

When I wrote the piece, I was thinking about my father's and how, spontaneous and how electric the service was every single Sunday, and how to embed that into the symphony orchestra.

Church has always been a safe space for Black Americans.

( background music fades) ( orchestral music begins ) () () () [audience applauds] [cheering] Carlos Simon, everyone.

[audience applauds] band music begins () () () 1960 What?

1960 Who?

1960 What?

1960 Who?

Hey!

The Motor City is burning that ain't right.

1960 What?

1960 Who?

1960 What?

Great God, almighty, the Motor City's burning.

That aint right.

There was a man, a voice of a people, oh Standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.

Shots rang out, Yes, it was a gun.

He was the only one to fall down, yall.

That ain't right.

Then his people screamed, Ain't no need for sunlight, Ain't no need for moonlight, Ain't no need for street light Cause its burning real brigh Some folk say we gonna fight, cause this here thing just ain't right.

1960 What?

1960 Who?

1960 What?

1960 Who?

Hey, the Motor Citys burning!

orchestral music Great God Almighty, Great God Almighty Its burning!

orchestral music Wont somebody help me, Wont somebody help me, () music continues Young man coming out of a liquor store, () with three pieces of black licorice in his hand.

Mr.

Policeman, God bless him, thought it was a gun, thought he was the one.

Shot him down.

That ain't right.

Then his mama screamed, Ain't no need for sunlight, Aint no need for moonlight, Ain't no need for street light 'Cause its burning real brigh Some folks say we gon fight!

Gon fight!

This here thing just ain't rig Ain't right!

1960 What?

1960 Who?

1960 What?

1960 Who?

Hey, the Motor Citys burning!

orchestral music Hey, cant you see that its b () Cant put out the fire, its b In my, my... singer harmonizing trumpet plays orchestral music trumpet continues orchestral music continues [applause] orchestral music continues ( ) 1960 What?

1960 Who?

1960 What?

1960 Who?

Hey, the Motor Citys burning!

that ain't right.

There was a man, voice of a pe Standing on the balcony, of the Loraine Motel Shots rang out!

Yes, it was a gun, he was the to fall down, ya'll, that ain' Then his people screamed, Ain't no need for sunlight, Ain't no need for moonlight, Ain't no need for street light Cause its burning real brigh Some folk say we gonna fight, cause this here thing just ain't right.

1960 What?

1960 Who?

1960 What?

1960 Who?

1960 What?

1960 Who?

1960 What?

1960 Who?

1960 What?

1960 Who?

1960 What?

1960 Who?

Great God, almighty it's burning.

Wont somebody help me it's burning.

Cant put out the fire it's burning.

singer harmonizing 1960 What?

1960 Who?

1960 What?

1960 Who?

Hmm...That aint right.

That aint right.

orchestral music ends [cheering] orchestral music begins () () Well, they guild their houses In preparation for the King, And they line the sidewalks With every sort of shiny thing.

They will be surprised When they hear Him say, Take me to the alley, Take me to the afflicted ones, Take me to the lonely ones that somehow lost their way.

Let them hear me say, I am your friend, Come to my table.

Rest here in my garden, You will have a pardon.

Brother, you will have a pardo Well, they guild their houses In preparation for the King, And oh!

they line the sidewalk With every sort of expensive and important and sh But Oh, Oh!

They will be surpr When they hear His Majesty say, Hey!

Take me to the alley, Take me to the afflicted ones, Take me to the lonely ones that somehow lost their way.

Let them hear me say, Oh!

I am your friend, Come, Come an eat at my table.

Rest here in my garden Brother, you will have a pardo Sister, you will have a pardon orchestral music Well, they guild their houses In preparation for the King, And, woah, they line the sidew With every sort of expensive and shiny thing.

Woah!

They will be surprised when they hear His Royal Highness say, Hey!

Take me to the alley, Take me to the afflicted ones, Take me to the lonely ones that somehow lost their way.

Let them hear me say, Woah, I am your friend, Come and eat at my table, And rest here in my garden, Oh, brother, you will have a pardon, Oh, sister, you will have a pa There aint a thing that you can do to which the King cant issue a pardon.

Lonely one, hungry one, addicted one, afflicted one, Ooh, you will have a pardon.

By royal decree, Listen to me, You will have a pardon.

singer harmonizing orchestral music plays orchestral music ends orchestral music begins ( ) orchestral music ends So our next tune--the Benedicti Margaret Bonds Montgomery Varia We heard the 3rd movement first, the 7th movement is Benediction It was dedicated to Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

after actually the Montgomery bus boycott, which he did lead.

But, we're going to actually dedicate this movement, Benedic to the late, great President Jim [audience applauds] So we hope you all enjoy this wonderful, this wonderful, wonderful piece and variation of the tune, I Want Jesus To Walk With Me, the Benediction from Margaret Bond's Variations.

orchestral music begins ( ) orchestral music ends orchestral music begins ( ) ( ) Praise ye the Lord.

Praise God in His sanctuary.

Praise Him in the firmament of Praise ye the Lord.

Praise God in His sanctuary.

Praise Him in the firmament of Praise ye the Lord.

Praise God in His sanctuary.

Praise Him in the firmament of Praise ye the Lord.

Praise God in His sanctuary.

From the rising of the sun to the setting of the same, Let everything that hath breat praise ye the Lord.

Praise ye the Lord.

Praise God in His sanctuary.

Praise Him in the firmament of Praise ye the Lord.

Praise God in His sanctuary.

Praise Him in the firmament of Praise ye the Lord.

Praise God in His sanctuary.

Praise Him in the firmament of Praise ye the Lord.

Praise God in His sanctuary.

Praise Him in the firmament of From the rising of the sun to the setting of the same, Let everything that hath breat praise ye the Lord.

For His loving kindness, for H mercies that are renewed evry d I will worship Him, (I will honor Him) for His name is to be praised.

Praise ye the Lord.

Praise God in His sanctuary.

Praise Him in the firmament of Praise ye the Lord.

Praise God in His sanctuary.

Praise Him in the firmament of From the rising of the sun to the setting of the same, Let everything Let everything that hath breat praise ye the Lord.

Amen!

Amen!

Amen!

[audience applauds] My name is Patrice E Turner.

Everybody calls me Dr.

Patrice, Dr.

P, Dr.

T, I have so many different names, but I serve as the Director of W and the Arts here at Ebenezer.

I'm the first woman to do so here at the church, and I just celebrated seven years of service here at Ebeneze They call me The Mastermind, and I love that word because I've been thinking about how we could reestablish our partnership with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, since it was in existence prior to my being here at Ebenezer.

People know about Ebenezer being a home for social justice.

They know about the great preach that has happened at this church but they might not necessarily realize that there is a wealth of musical and arts related production that has come out of Ebenezer.

A lot of people do not know is t Dr.

King's grandfather is the se pastor, the second person to have pastored Ebenezer.

So it was his grandfather, Pastor Williams, and then his wi who was the one who was over the And then, lo and behold, a littl later, his parents, Daddy King and Mama King became that same kind of vibe at Ebenezer.

One of the things that I saw myself, doing as a little girl w I wanted to be the Director of M or the Minister of Music was the at the time, of a large Black Ba church that did all kinds of mus Anthems, hymns, spirituals, African-American gospel music, traditional, contemporary everyt And I wanted to hear that in jazz and hip hop.

I want to hear all of that in one service.

And so when God allowed me to come here to Ebenezer, we do just that.

background music ends [audience applauds] piano begins ( ) Take my hand, Precious Lord, and lead me home.

piano continues Precious Lord, take my hand, Lead me on, let me stand.

I am tired, I am weak, I am worn; Through the storm, through the night, Lead me on to the light, Take my hand, Precious Lord, and lead me home.

When my way grows drear, Precious Lord, linger near.

When my life is almost gone, Hear my cry, hear my call, Guide my feet lest I fall, Take my hand, Precious Lord, and lead me home.

At the river I stand, Guide my feet, hold my hand, Take my hand, Precious Lord, and lead me home.

[audience applauds] [applause ends] piano begins If I can help somebody If I can help somebody as I pass along, If I can cheer somebody with a word or a song, If I can show somebody he is traveling wrong, Then my living shall not be in vain.

If I can point somebody to the lamb once slain, If I can tell somebody that He rose again, That He can cleanse the guilty He can wash the stain, Then my living shall not be in vain.

Then my living shall not be in vain.

If I can help somebody as I pass along, Lord, my living shall not be in vain.

If I can do my duty as a Christian ought, if I can bring back beauty to a world up wrought, If I can spread love's message as the Master taught, Then my living shall not be in vain.

Then my living shall not be in vain.

If I can help somebody as I pass along, Then my living shall not be in vain.

If I can help somebody as I pass along, Then my living shall not be in vain.

If I can help somebody as I pass along, Then my living shall not be in vain.

[audience applauds] I've got so much to thank God for, So many wonderful blessings and so many open doors.

A brand new mercy Along with each new day That's why I give you the praise, God.

Hallelujah, God!

And for this I give You the praise.

() For waking me up this morning, For starting me on my way, For letting me see the sunshine of a brand new day.

A brand new mercy Along with each new day That's why I praise you God.

For this, I give You praise.

You're Jehovah Jhireh God, You have been my provider So many times You've met Patrices needs And so many times You reached down and rescued me I want to thank You, God, for the blessings You give to me each day.

That's why I praise You That's why I give you the prai For this, I give You the prais singer harmonizing For every mountain You brought me over For every trial you've seen me through For every blessing Hallelujah, for this I give Yo For every mountain You brought me over For every trial you've seen me through For every blessing Hallelujah, for this I give Yo For every mountain You brought me over For every trial you've seen me through For every blessing Hallelujah, for this I give Yo For every mountain You brought me over For every trial you've seen me through For every blessing Hallelujah, for this I give Yo [audience applauds] For every mountain You brought me over For every trial you've seen me through For every blessing Hallelujah, for this I give Yo For every mountain You brought me over For every trial you've seen me through For every blessing Hallelujah, for this I give Yo [audience applauds] orchestral music We shall overcome, we shall overcome, We shall overcome someday.

Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe that we shall overcome someday We shall overcome, we shall overcome, We shall overcome someday.

Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe that we shall overcome someday orchestral music We shall overcome, we shall overcome, We shall overcome someday.

Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe that we shall overcome someday We shall overcome someday!

[audience applauds] ( )