Cincinnati Symphony to mark 20th year of Classical Roots concerts

On April 22, John Morris Russell will conduct the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s annual Classical Roots concert at Music Hall, featuring the CSO and Classical Roots Community Mass Choir during. The concert will mark Classical Roots’ 20th year, and will be live-streamed for free on the CSO’s website and YouTube and Facebook pages. The program will include Michael Abels’s Outburst, James Weldon Johnson’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” Giuseppe Verdi’s “Sempre libera,” Will Marion Cook’s In Dahomey Suite, and Terence Blanchard’s “Peculiar Grace” (from Fire Shut Up in My Bones). Also scheduled: music by Eubie Blake, Margaret Bonds, James Cleveland, Stephen Flaherty, Charles Fold, Scott Joplin, Charlie Smalls, Gregory Spears, Luther Vandross, and Andrew Lloyd Webber.