Symphonicity to perform local composer’s work featuring Civil War-era poems by women

The Virginia-based orchestra Symphonicity will perform We That Wait, an orchestral song cycle by local composer Rich Moriarty based on poems from the American Civil War written by women, on its February 16 concert in Virginia Beach. Joining the performance of We That Wait will be mezzo-soprano Emily Russell from the Virginia Opera. Moriarty spent his professional life as a pathologist in Hampton Roads; after retiring, he earned a master of music degree from Old Dominion University and studied composition under the mentorship of composers Adolphus Hailstork and Richard Danielpour. Music Director Daniel W. Boothe will lead the 90-minute program, which will also feature singers from Old Dominion University Chorus and the Symphonicity Chorus—a group of auditioned volunteer singers who come together to perform with the Symphonicity orchestra at least once a year—in Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe and John Rutter’s Gloria. The concert will open with Lucien Cailliet’s transcription of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Little Fugue in G minor. Pre-concert activities will include a performance by the Virginia Children’s Chorus Concert Choir and a discussion among performers and Boothe.