Akron Symphony creates podcast; initial series features Rita Dove’s “Sonata Mulattica” poetry collection

The Akron Symphony Orchestra has launched a podcast entitled Unorchestrated, co-hosted by Music Director Christopher Wilkins and Director of Marketing Thomas Moore and featuring conversations with ASO musicians, guest artists, and newsmakers in the music industry. Unorchestrated premieres with a fourteen-part discussion series featuring Akron-born poet Rita Dove. A Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate, Dove is the only poet to receive both the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts. The Rita Dove podcast episodes focus on Dove’s poetry collection Sonata Mulattica: A Life in Five Movements and a Short Play, which explores the relationship between the Black violinist George Bridgetower and Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven’s violin sonata that eventually was known as the “Kreutzer” Sonata was written for Bridgetower. Akron Symphony’s Unorchestrated podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Libsyn.