To Awaken The Sleeper

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra revisits Adolphus Hailstork’s reverent memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. (a work it premiered in 1980), and it touches the visceral hurt in Alvin Singleton’s 1994 reaction to police brutality. Joel Thompson, a young composer who is revolutionizing concert music with his deeply moving stands on race and justice, adds a gripping meditation on the words of James Baldwin. Artistic Advisor James Conlon concludes with a fresh look at the self-reflective symphony Shostakovich wrote in the aftermath of Stalin’s reign of terror.