For ONNY’s third and final musical celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, we’re featuring music inspired by great American literature. In some cases, the works are traditional novels, like Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, and William Faulkner’s The Reivers. In addition, we’ve also included music inspired by other types of writing, such as the series of Pulitzer Prize winning articles by Malcolm Johnson that were the catalyst for the 1954 film On the Waterfront, and the collected writings of the Suffragette movement that led to 19th Amendment. The music resulting from all these works is as varied and stirring as the texts themselves and serves as a reminder of how music can augment and even elevate the power of the written word. Two of the works on the program, Stacy Garrop’s “Battle for the Ballot” and John Williams’ “Suite from The Reivers” feature the texts of the authors as part of the concert experience, and to share these words we’re thrilled to be joined by Guy C. “Chip” Lamson and Dr. Colleen Skull as guest narrators.

Narrator · Guy C. “Chip” Lamson
Narrator · Dr. Colleen Skull