Sanctuary Road

Conductor Andrew Grams leads the CSO in an all-American program of music that expresses the pulse of freedom that courses through all of us, from Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber to the operatic storytelling of history in Sanctuary Road, created by Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell. 

Sanctuary Road – In Pursuit of Freedom

Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and his Pulitzer Prize-winning Appalachian Spring Suite were both written in the 1940s, during World War II, and both are dedicated to and give sound to the inspired American spirit. Samuel Barber’s familiar and heart-wrenching Adagio for Strings has resonated profoundly, especially with U.S. audiences, since its premiere in 1938.

Paul Moravec describes his and Mark Campbell’s Sanctuary Road as an “American historical oratorio” based on the writings of William Still — an African American abolitionist who aided travelers through the Underground Railroad. Still authored a book of the same name (The Underground Railroad) which told the once-secret stories of fugitive slaves and their struggles for freedom. Moravec, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, and Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning librettist Mark Campbell present the emotionally powerful operatic storytelling of essential American history through orchestra, soloists, and chorus with Sanctuary Road. This promises to be a performance not soon forgotten by an audience that will undoubtedly be moved.

MORE ON THE MUSIC & ARTISTS:

• Andrew Grams is the former Music Director of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra and has studied conducting with Otto-Wener Mueller, served as Assistant Conductor at the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst, and spent two summers studying at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen.
• “I don’t know what’s the saddest piece of music ever written, but this piece, the way it ends, gives you a glimmer of hope. Not sadness at all.” — Conductor Leonard Slatkin on Barber’s Adagio for Strings
• Listen to a recording from Naxos Records of Sanctuary Road, a work which was commissioned by the Oratorio Society of New York, featuring soprano Laquita Mitchell, tenor Joshua Blue, and baritone Malcolm J. Merriweather (all of whom will also perform with the CSO for this concert).
• Press for Sanctuary Road:
  • “Moravec’s powerful gift for melody and a thrusting line gave each of the soloists an opportunity to shine in rendering a variety of characters.” — BroadwayWorld
  • “Largely tonal, intensely dramatic” — The Classical Review
  • “An episodic journey through history” — Operawire

PROGRAM

Aaron Copland
Fanfare for the Common Man

Samuel Barber
Adagio for Strings

Aaron Copland
Appalachian Spring Suite

INTERMISSION

Paul Moravec/Mark Campbell
Sanctuary Road Oratorio for Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra (libretto by Mark Campbell)
An oratorio inspired by the writings of William Still, conductor for the Underground Railroad

Music by Paul Moravec
Libretto by Mark Campbell

I. Write
II. Quietly
III. Reward!
IV. The Same Train
V. Interview I
VI. Run I
VII. This Side Up
VIII. I Waited
IX. Run II
X. Interview II
XI. Aunt Abigail
XII. Run III
XIII. Interview III
XIV. Rain
XV. Interlude
XVI. Finale

*This performance of Sanctuary Road is generously sponsored by John and Betsy Cahill*

ARTISTS

Andrew Grams, conductor
Laquita Mitchell, soprano
Melody Wilson, mezzo-soprano
Joshua Blue, tenor
Malcolm J. Merriweather, baritone
Benjamin Taylor, bass-baritone
Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chorus, (Nicholas Quardokus, Director)