Miami University Symphony Orchestra
Ricardo Averbach, conductor
President David C. Hodge, narrator

Experience this uplifting program! Written in 1942 during the height of World War II, and incorporating the poetic words of our country’s 16th president, Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait dramatizes the universal struggle for freedom. After the wall fell, Leonard Bernstein conducted Beethoven’s 9th at an historic concert, symbolically changing the word joy to freedom in Ode to Joy. President Hodge will give us the dramatic reading of Copland’s work, and the entire audience is invited to sing along to the Joy movement of Beethoven’s 9th as the triumphant finale.