Committee to honor King with music

Dr. King’s wish is ‘very
present,’ a local organizer said.

By ALISON KEMP

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day gives people an opportunity to be open and honest with traditionally taboo topics — race, religion, gender and politics — said the Rev. Lewis Macklin, one of the local MLK Planning Committee’s co-conveners.

The committee has planned a weekend of music, worship and learning, two weekends from today, in honor of the man who shared his dream with this country.

Members of all faiths and backgrounds in Mahoning County have formed the MLK Planning Committee to present “A Musical Tribute to Martin Luther King” on Jan. 19 and “A Spiritual Journey: The Road to Peace and Freedom” on Jan. 20, which is a worship service, and Jan. 21, which is a workshop.

Youngstown has been celebrating Martin Luther King for about three decades, the Rev. Mr. Macklin said.

The musical program began in 2005 with local talent and was somewhat disorganized, said Rabbi Joel Berman, the other co-convener.

“I thought it was spectacular then,” Mr. Macklin said, but now, he describes it as more refined and more spectacular. “Every year we look forward to what we can improve.”

“This is a professional-level thing,” Rabbi Berman said.

He’s not sure how this year’s performance with a piece of music written by the man who is conducting it could ever be topped. The Youngstown Symphony Orchestra will present Conductor Randall Craig Fleischer’s “A Spiritual Journey.”

“My fear and phobia is, ‘Where do we go from here?’” Mr. Macklin said.

Mr. Macklin said he heard about this piece while he was watching TV, and thought that since Fleischer had just been hired as the YSO’s conductor, he and his piece would be a wonderful addition to the musical performance.

The piece includes narration. A history of the civil rights movement and what King said at those events will be read by Mayor Jay Williams and his wife, Sonja.

The narration had previously been read by Yolanda King, the elder daughter of

King. When Fleischer first sent her the narration, he said he expected her to make changes.

“She didn’t change a single word,” Fleischer said in a phone interview from his home in Los Angeles. She was planning on narrating this concert, too, but she unexpectedly died in May 2007.

Mr. Macklin is pleased to have the Williamses speaking because they are proof that some of King’s dream has come true.

King said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

King’s wish is “very present,” Mr. Macklin said. “Our community is experiencing victories.”

“A Spiritual Journey” is an arrangement of spirituals by Fleischer and his wife, Heidi Joyce, that he based on a piece about Abraham Lincoln by the American composer Aaron Copland called “Lincoln Portrait.” It contained narration that was from Lincoln’s speeches, letters and debates.

Fleischer had the idea to do the same thing for King. Instead of folk songs like Copland used, he chose Negro spirituals. He ends with “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and when the music gets to the chorus (the “Glory, glory, hallelujah!” part), Fleischer said the narrator will be reading King’s final words in his “I Have a Dream” speech: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Fleischer described this ending as a “spine-tingling moment.” He said it is the same as the feeling “that tingles up your spine when you hear Dr. King speak.”

He does not want anyone to miss the performance.

“It’s never been done without the audience leaping to their feet,” he said. “Anyone who believes in the importance of the civil rights movement, they should be at this concert.”

The evening at Powers Auditorium will also have a performance by the locally organized MLK Celebration Choir. This will be the first time the choir has performed with the full Youngstown Symphony Orchestra.

The choir was added to the program for the 2006 performance. Verna Wylie, who is the chairwoman of the concert committee, asked Arnold Wagner if he would like to work with a choir for the musical event. He agreed and has worked with the choir since.

He said the choir is diverse, which is “much the desire of Martin Luther King: to bring people together as a unit and work as one.”

Wylie wanted to keep youth involved in the concert because King was always interested in youth. Five students will be narrators for the choir.

Pieces are still falling into place, but Mr. Berman expects everything to be in place by performance time.

Rehearsals have been a special treat for Mr. Macklin and Wylie.

Mr. Macklin said he likes seeing the product created and will appreciate the performance more, knowing how much time was spent practicing.

He also likes seeing families come out and the interaction of the children participating in the program.

“Color is not an issue,” he said. “It’s playtime for them.”

Wylie is impressed with how Wagner has brought the choir members together and the growth that has occurred in these musicians, who mostly are untrained.

“What has impressed me is how Mr. Wagner took a group of people who just like to sing ... and how he’s molded them,” she said.

Representatives from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths will be hosting and participating in these events together, in honor of King’s trying to bring unity to people of all walks of life.

Fleischer described the planning committee as “words of Martin Luther King put into action.”

Mr. Berman was a high school student when King and President John F. Kennedy were assassinated. He said what they were fighting for has not died.

“To me, every year you move ahead, you move away from the events that changed a generation,” Mr. Berman said.

He said he has noticed that there have been great advances, but there still is much to be done to improve connections among people of all walks of life.

Mr. Macklin has noticed this, too.

“It’s tragic, but we have a generation of people who think the civil rights movement was fictional,” Macklin said. He said that young people today say they would have done things differently, but if that was so, he believes they would not have lived through the movement.

These events will show the effects of the civil rights movement, and the co-conveners are looking forward to a good response from the community.

“It’s no good if the community itself is not there,” Mr. Macklin said.

He explained that King would not want people to have a day off on his day of remembrance. “It’s not a day off. It’s really one to engage and commit oneself,” Macklin said.

People don’t find the workshop as attractive, he said, but it’s the heart of the event. Attendees are encouraged to bring their children with them, he said. After the workshop, a rally will be held, beginning at the First Presbyterian Church on Wick Avenue.

akemp@vindy.com