Six years ago, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and city of Norfolk pulled together a community-focused concert in response to hate: White supremacists from around the country had descended on Charlottesville in early August. A neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring dozens.
Norfolk’s CommUNITY Play-In and Sing-Along was organized in two weeks and drew about 700 singers and musicians — professional and amateur, young and older, across a spectrum of races and ethnicities. The event became a September tradition to also remember 9/11 and its victims.
This year’s Sept. 10 concert happens to come after another hate crime: On Saturday, a white racist shot and killed three Black people in a Florida store.
Music and fellowship will again be a balm, said De’Jonna Mayo, communications manager for the symphony.
“This is uniting everyone through music and community.”
The first rehearsal of the chorus and orchestra is Wednesday night.
Last year’s CommUNITY was the first after a two-year absence because of the pandemic. More than 1,000 performers, 5- to 85-year-olds, filled the Half Moone Cruise and Celebration Center. Organizers are expecting more musicians and more people in the audience and have moved the concert to Joseph G. Echols Memorial Hall at Norfolk State University.
The event will include dance and spoken word. Musical selections by the community orchestra and chorus include “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and the “Raiders March” from the “Indiana Jones” movie franchise. Conductors include VSO’s music director, Eric Jacobsen, and director of education, Helen Martell, and Stephanie Sanders, NSU’s assistant director of bands. The U.S. Fleet Forces Band and NSU choir will also perform.
Another rehearsal will be held on the day of the concert; participants should attend at least one practice, Mayo said. Participants must register and will receive a link to download music; music is available for any instrument and voice at any level. To register, visit bit.ly/CommUNITY2023
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If you go
Rehearsals: 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Taste-n-See Murray Center, 455 E. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk; 2:30 to 4 p.m. Sept. 10, Joseph G. Echols Memorial Hall, Norfolk State University, 700 Park Ave.
Concert: 4:30 p.m. Sept. 10, Echols Hall, Norfolk State University
Tickets: Free
Details: virginiasymphony.org/community
