Foundations support BSO’s ‘Back to the River’

BANGOR – The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation and the Davis Family Foundation have made grant awards to the Bangor Symphony Orchestra project “Back to the River – Discovering Bangor’s Roots.”

The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation awarded $25,000 to two portions of the project, the world premiere of “Symphony No. 4, the Penobscot,” and for the “Penobscot River Tour,” which will take the BSO to Millinocket and Bucksport to perform the tribute to the river that has played such a dominant role in the birth of the towns and cities of north-central Maine.

The Davis Family Foundation’s grant of $10,000 is in support of the premiere, to be performed Oct. 23 at the Bangor Auditorium.

In 2001, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra was selected as Maine’s representative in the Continental Harmony Program of the American Composer’s Forum. The award was for a composer-in-residence that would produce a new symphony. Together with several community collaborators, the orchestra decided on a composer and theme: the cultural heritage of the city of Bangor and the river that spawned its growth, the Penobscot.

“Symphony No. 4, The Penobscot,” by composer Thomas Oboe Lee, has choral and dance elements reflective of the cultural fabric of Bangor’s glory days. The choral text is adapted from works such as Thoreau’s “Ktaadin,” Fanny Hardy Eckstrom’s “The Death of Thoreau’s Guide,” John Greenleaf Whittier’s “The Loggers Boast,” and concludes with Bangor’s “Centennial Hymn.” The piece will be part of Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s legacy to the residents of central and northern Maine.

The Robinson Ballet will join the BSO for the dance component and the choral pieces will feature the University of Maine Singers, Oratorio Society and the Bangor High School Chorus. The concert also will include the Bangor Band performing a new orchestration of the Irish hymn from which Bangor takes its name.