Orchestra Miami will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, by honoring four prominent women during a concert on Feb. 8.
The four honorees are chair of U.S. Century Bank Aida Levitan; historian, author and preservationist Arva Moore Parks McCabe; Miami historian and first African-American president of the Dade Heritage Trust Enid Curtis Pinckney, and former Miami-Dade County Commissioner and former president and CEO of the Miami Foundation Ruth Shack. The honorees were selected for their service and contributions to the people of Miami and the community’s collective society and culture.
The concert is called “Miami Mujeres,” and will take place on Saturday, Feb. 8, 8 p,m,, at the historic First Miami Presbyterian Church, 609 Brickell Ave., home to Miami’s oldest congregation.
The concert is part of Orchestra Miami’s “Discover Miami Through Music” series, which presents appropriately themed concerts in Miami’s places of historic interest in order to provide an opportunity to learn more about the city and each other through music.
Founded in 1896, The First Miami Presbyterian Church was the first formal Presbyterian congregation in Miami, founded two months before Miami became incorporated as a city.
Henry Flagler became the church’s biggest benefactor. Of course, Flagler would not have come to Miami if Julia Tuttle hadn’t convinced him of Miami’s vast potential and persuaded him to extend his East Coast Railroad to Miami in 1896. As a result of this, Miami is the only major U.S. city to be founded by a woman.
The concert features compositions by four noteworthy women composers: Afro-Cuban composer, conductor, educator and arts advisor Tania León; Amy Beach, the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music and one of the first American composers to succeed without the benefit of European training; Florence Price, the first black woman to have a symphony performed by a major U.S. orchestra (The Chicago Symphony) in 1933, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Miami native and graduate of Gables High, and winner of countless honors and awards including the Pulitzer Prize. The 52 musicians of Orchestra Miami will be conducted by Orchestra Miami’s founder and artistic director Elaine Rinaldi and features powerhouse Russian pianist Asiya Korepanova as the soloist on Amy Beach’s piano concerto.
As a tribute to each of the composers on the concert, Orchestra Miami will ask the four honorees to read a brief paragraph about each composer and be honored themselves at the concert.
Program for “Miami Mujeres”
Ácana by Tania León (b. 1943)
Concerto for Piano in C # Minor by Amy Marcy Beach (1867-1944), Asiya Korepanova, soloist
*Intermission*
Concert Overture No. 2 by Florence Price (1887-1953)
Symphony No. 1 (Three Movements for Orchestra) by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b. 1939)
“I’m so excited that Orchestra Miami is able to mark such a significant anniversary with this concert and honor four women which I admire greatly,”Rinaldi said. “As a Miami native and conductor, this concert combines elements that are most important to me — love and pride for my city, gratitude for the women of the suffragette movement, gratitude to the women who came before me in fighting for equality and rights for women and gratitude for the women who preserve and protect our heritage for future generations. We would not be who we are today without their sacrifices.”
Following the concert, there will be a reception for the honorees in the church reception hall. VIP tickets, which include the post-concert reception and a reserved seat, are $60 per person. General admission seating for the concert only is priced from $5 to $40. Limited free parking is available at the church parking lot; spillover parking is available at the Bank of America parking garage adjacent to the church.
Tickets and complete information can be found at www.OrchestraMiami.org or by calling 305-274-2103.
For more information, visit the website at www.OrchestraMiami.org.
