Music To A at Grace All Our Ears Church

Music To A at Grace All Our Ears Church

Grace Church Rector Weston Mathews and Lena Scott Lundh

Photo by Leland Schwartz

By Leland Schwartz

Growing The Plains as a regional center for music and the arts, highlyregarded conductor Miriam Burns is bringing the new Paragon Philharmonia chamber orchestra to Grace Church.

The first concert, “A Joyous Beginning,” will be held Sunday, Oct. 17 at 5 p.m., with the Chamber Orchestra performing the Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, a Mendelssohn String Symphony and Mozart’s Symphony No. 29.

Paragon Philharmonia joins the acclaimed two-decade-old Grace Church Concert Series, which starts its season on Sunday, Oct. 3 with “Music from the Heart: A Celebration of Connection in Aria and Song” with sopranos Camille Zamora and Monica Yunus and pianist Josephine Riggs.

A resident of Manhattan, Burns is a visiting professor and Director of Orchestral Studies at Ohio State and is principal guest conductor of the Youngstown Symphony.

Recent past music directorships include the former Tysons McLean Orchestra of Northern Virginia, the Tallahassee Symphony, Kenosha Symphony and Lawton Philharmonic. She’s also guest conducted numerous orchestras in the U.S. and abroad.

Burns was on the New York Philharmonic staff as one of the cover conductors for eight years, serving under music directors Kurt Masur and Loren Maazel.

Paragon comes to Grace through the efforts of Lena Scott Lundh, former chair of Washington Performing Arts, and Grace Church Rev. Weston Mathews.

“No matter who you are or where you come from you are welcome to participate in everything Grace Church offers,” Rev. Mathews said, adding that, “music is one of the universal languages that helps knit us all together.”

“I agree,” said Scott Lundh. “Music can be just entertaining, but also serious, helping in healing and uniting us in times of sorrow and divisiveness. Twenty years after 9/11, we remember how people in New York came together in the aftermath of the horrific tragedy, singing “We Shall Overcome” and “America the Beautiful” while orchestras around the world presented the requiems of Brahms and Mozart.

“Music also has the ability to speak to us without words, expressing feelings and emotions, helping us understand life with our hearts rather than our minds.”

Grace Church and Paragon Philharmonia will focus on three areas of collaboration:

—Hosting a new series of accessible, high-quality concerts for the community that will complement the long-established Grace Concert Series.

—Partnering with Grace Director of Music Jason Farris and the Grace choir for concerts and enhanced congregational worship.

—Musical outreach to youth in the community, including local schools in the Northern Piedmont region.

The Grace Church Concert Series, created 22 years ago, is funded in part by Jacqueline Mars in memory of her mother, Mrs. Forrest Mars, who was devoted to music and loved Grace Church.

The church also is home to Dark Horse Theatre and Shakespeare Opera Theatre, the Piedmont Regional Art Show and Sale and The Piedmont Singers at Grace. In addition, a new film organization, the Piedmont Film Club, will show a movie the third Thursday of every month starting Oct. 21.

Music, Sweet Music

Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021 (Grace Church Concert Series)

“Music from the Heart: A Celebration of Connection in Aria and Song” with sopranos Camille Zamora and Monica Yunus and pianist Josephine Riggs.

Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021 (Paragon Philharmonia)

“A Joyous Beginning” Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, Mendelssohn String Symphony No. 10 and Mozart’s Symphony No. 29.

Sunday, Nov. 14, 2021 (Grace Church Concert Series)

Carl Reinecke, Sonata “Undine,” Op. 167, Sergei Prokofiev, Sonata in D Major; Anthony Trionfo, flute; Albert Cano Smit, piano.

Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021 (Paragon Philharmonia)

“Fall Fanfare” features the orchestra’s brass quintet with a special guest appearance by Grace Church organist Jason Farris. Music by Albinoni, Scheidt, Bernstein, Widor, Ellington and others.

Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021 (Paragon Philharmonia)

“A Baroque Christmas” includes both the solemnity and exuberance of Baroque orchestral music and holiday cheer. Music of Corelli, Bach, Telemann and others, and a collaboration with the Grace Church Choir in excerpts from Vivaldi’s beloved “Gloria.”

Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022 (Paragon Philharmonia)

“Ringing in the Year,’ an afternoon of chamber music featuring Schubert’s monumental “Cello Quintet.” Program also includes works by Chevalier de Saint-Georges and others.

Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022 (Grace Church Concert Series)

“From Darkness,” including Thomas Tallis, “If ye love me”; J. S. Bach, “Ein feste Burg”; Stacey V. Gibbs, “This Little Light of mine,” and The King’s Singers.

Sunday, March 20, 2022 (Paragon Philharmonia)

“Spring Celebration,” a delightful, varied orchestral program featuring Boyce Symphony No. 1, Piazzolla Primavera Porteña, Walker Lyric for Strings and Copland Appalachian Spring.

Sunday, April 24, 2022 (Grace Church Concert Series)

Johannes Brahms, Andante from Symphony No. 3; Robert Schumann, Cello Concerto in A Minor, op. 129; Henry Mancini, theme from The Pink Panther; Amit Peled Cello Gang, Amit Peled, conductor.