PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Beethoven symphonies and a musical sermon about social justice are in the spotlight this weekend at Verizon Hall.
"Sermon" is being performed by the orchestra with bass-baritone soloist and activist Davóne Tines, Musical America's 2022 Vocalist of the Year.
One piece, by John Adams, is titled "Shake the Heavens."
"People that are fighting for their freedom and their justice actually have due cause if you take the larger context into consideration," he said.
"Hopefully with this program, an audience can see a person's struggle for acceptance and humanity and start to understand or at least interrogate for themselves their own hand in that, or try to understand that someone that is reacting in a way of needing to garner social justice is informed through a very deep and problematic history."
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Tines said he wants to show audiences what it may look like to be marginalized.
One song co-written by Tines, called "Vigil," will be dedicated to the memory of Breonna Taylor.
"Beethoven Symphonies and a Sermon" runs this weekend at Verizon Hall.