Members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will perform a free concert on August 18 with the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters—a group of performers of Geechee Gullah ancestry formed in 1992—as part of the Smithsonian Institution’s national touring exhibit of New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music. The program, “Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands,” will be performed at the Archie B. Myers Sr. Fine Arts Center at the McIntosh Academy in Darien, Georgia. The concert, featuring African-American spirituals and slave songs native to the Georgia Low Country, includes arrangements and original compositions by ASO violinist Juan Ramirez and bassist Michael Kurth; performing with Ramirez and Kurth will be ASO musicians Kenn Wagner (violin), Jessica Oudin (viola), Jennifer Humphreys (cello), Brian Rehm (bass), and Karin Bliznik (trumpet). The Smithsonian’s New Harmonies exhibit will travel for the next sixteen months, with stops in Perry, Moultrie, Toccoa, Bremen, Thomson, Nashville, Americus, Waycross, and LaGrange—all in Georgia. As a presenting partner for the tour, the ASO will present a series of community and education events to accompany the exhibit in each of the twelve cities.
Posted August 15, 2012
