Sunday, February  28, 7pm
Concert sponsor: Elegance By Design

By Larry Gabriel, www.gumbospot.com, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   

Black History month is even more meaningful when great composers such as Duke Ellington, William Grant Still, Scott Joplin, and Detroit’s own Rick Robinson get the spotlight. These legendary composers get the string treatment with the Lotus Ensemble — violinists Joseph Striplin and Velda Kelly, bassist Rick Robinson and violist John Madison, as they bow away the blues on a cold winter evening. Striplin and Robinson are members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Kelly and Madison play in the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra, as well as regularly with the DSO.

William Grant Still is considered by many to be the “dean” of African American composers. He was the first African American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, the first to have his own symphony performed by a top orchestra, and the first to have his own opera performed by a major opera company and on national television. That puts him in good company with Ellington and Joplin, both legendary and prodigious composers, who created musical models for generations of jazz musicians to come. Many early jazz masters were classical music and opera enthusiasts, hearing them side by side with classical greats is a wonderful demonstration of this symbiotic relationship.

Lotus will also perform Robinson’s composition City of Trees, as well as works by Mozart and others. Robinson’s ESSAY No. 1 (After Sibelius) was premiered by DSO in 2006.

Striplin, a member of the DSO since 1972, began his musical studies in Detroit’s public schools. He was a member of the Metropolitan Opera National Company Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony and the St. Louis Symphony before returning to Detroit. Striplin is also music director and conductor of the Grosse Pointe Symphony.
Kelly has been teaching and performing around Detroit since 1983. She is artistic director of Chamber Music at the Scarab Club and often performs with the DSO.

Madison is principal violist of the MOT Orchestra and Sphinx Symphony, as well as a regular substitute with the DSO. A sought-after educator, he is Dean of the Sphinx Preparatory Music Institute. He is cofounder and coordinator of the Cassini Ensemble, and recently toured with the Chamber Orchestra of France and performed with the New York City Opera Co.

A DSO bassist since1989, Robinson first studied music in Highland Park Public Schools and Interlochen. He’s served as principal bass of the Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra, assistant principal of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, and substitute with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1995 he founded CutTime Players, an octet of DSO members.

The Takeaway’s new star Public Radio host Celeste Headlee, Grant Still’s granddaughter, will join us to provide personal insights into her grandfather’s music and life.