Grammy Award Winner John McLaughlin Williams to Conduct Park University’s ICM Orchestra

The Park University International Center for Music Orchestra will present its third concert of the 2021-22 season on Friday, March 4, under the direction of Grammy Award-winning guest conductor John McLaughlin Williams.

The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. inside Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel on the University’s flagship Parkville Campus. Admission is free; however, reservations are requested by e-mailing Gus Fernandez Agreda, ICM coordinator, at gfernandezagreda@park.edu. Masks are required while inside the Chapel.

In 2007, Williams became the first African American conductor to win a Grammy Award, honored in the Best Classical Performance – Instrumental Soloist(s) (with Orchestra) category for conducting the Cleveland Chamber Symphony with Angelin Chang as soloist on Olivier Messiaen’s “Oiseaux Exotiques.” Williams, an acclaimed violinist, pianist and chamber musician, also arranged the National Song of the Cayman Islands, which used at public events in the British Overseas Territory.

The concert will feature four selections, including:

• Felix Mendelssohn’s “String Symphony No. 13 (Symphoniesatz),” a work full of drama and excitement that was composed when Mendelssohn was in his teens.
• Frank Bridge’s “Lament,” a moving and heartfelt piece originally written in memory of a 9-year-old girl lost on the sinking of the Royal Mail Ship Lusitania in 1915. The ICM Orchestra is performing the work in memory of those who have passed away due to COVID-19.
• George Frederick McKay’s “Suite on 16th Century Hymn Tunes,” a lush arrangement of some of the more austere hymn tunes of Reformation composer Louis Bourgeois.
• Jean Françaix’s “Symphonie d’archets (Symphony of Bows),” a virtuosic composition filled with wistful, tender and sometimes ironic turns.

For more information about Park University’s International Center for Music, including a schedule of upcoming performances, visit icm.park.edu.