Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra brings communities together with music

The first time I talked to Robert McDuffie about the new Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra, it was about how it would bring excellent music to Macon audiences while providing an extraordinary and unique learning opportunity for students of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University.

But he also said emphatically it should be inclusive across age, race and socioeconomic lines and be an avenue for a variety of Macon voices to be heard to bring a measure of health and healing to the city.

As the MMSO opens its fourth season Monday, all of those original hopes are in their fulfillment and the latter is poignantly highlighted as three Macon mayors, former Mayors C. Jack Ellis and Robert Reichert and current Macon-Bibb Mayor Lester Miller, voice the thoughts of Abraham Lincoln during a performance of Aaron Copland’s brilliant 1942 orchestral work, “Lincoln Portrait.”

This is on the heels of last season’s orchestrated “Macon Portrait” where nearly a dozen representatives from various Macon sub-communities told their stories, spoke of their people, their dreams, desires, hardships and victories. It was moving, memorable and something of a landmark moment.

There have been other representations of Macon’s community and talent and now come the three mayors ­— each having or having had a political stance not necessarily in agreement with the other — but now uniting on the stage of The Piedmont Grand Opera House to challenge and advocate for the common good as Lincoln did in addresses to the nation and its politicians during his divided, troubled time.

“I’ve had in mind to do Copland’s ‘Lincoln Portrait’ from the symphony’s beginning and I’m excited to kick off this fourth season with it,” McDuffie said in a phone conversation last week. “We’ve had great seasons in the past and this new one has a lot in store. From day one, I’ve felt the symphony could play a significant role in the community and, to a certain degree, it could be a means of healing. Music heals.

“I do feel Macon is at a unique moment in its history and is meeting that moment to face issues, right wrongs and heal breaches. No city is perfect, but I’m so proud of the people who’re working toward these ends and the investment they’re making in our community.”

As we talked, McDuffie drew attention to the fact he said “our community” though he’s been away from Macon since his late teens.

“I’m incredibly happy to be a son of Macon,” he said. “I hope this performance shows artistically that while the nation is divided, Macon seems to be healing and we have three mayors who can come together to read these sacred words given to us by Lincoln. It’s significant.”

Miller echoed McDuffie’s thoughts about Macon and the time it’s in.

“We’re at a moment when our community is working so hard to face the issues presented by our past, focus on the challenges we currently face and plan for the future — and we’re doing it together,” he said responding to a query I sent him. “I went to seven elementary schools so I met a lot of different people and learned about many different Macon neighborhoods. I went to Southwest when it was the largest high school in the country. All of that taught me we each face similar challenges in our lives but have different ways and abilities to face them. However, we can all face them together and that’s what’s happening now.”

Reichert has known McDuffie for years and serves on a board of visitors connected to the MMSO, a board that helps aid and advise. He keyed in on McDuffie’s thoughts on music and healing.

“Bobby has an expression he loves to use,” Reichert told me. “He says, ‘Words count, actions matter, music heals.’ I think Bobby hopes this music and these words will promote a sense of unity and healing. I was certainly flattered and honored to be among the three mayors asked to participate and, of course, I’m more than happy to be a part. I give a lot of credit to Bobby for having this idea.”

In talking with Ellis, Macon’s first and only Black mayor, he focused largely on the freedom, equality and justice Lincoln spoke of.

“I’m honored to have been asked and to participate in sharing these great words of Abraham Lincoln,” Ellis said. “Set amid Copland’s music, I believe they speak volumes to us today just as they did in Lincoln’s day. His words speak to the heart of what it means to be free. I grew up under Jim Crow laws which legalized segregation and oppressed Americans of African descent. We were not afforded the freedom Lincoln spoke of all those years ago. We are moving more toward the beloved community and a more perfect union but we’re not there. Lincoln said, ‘As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.’ He said that expressed his idea of what democracy was and that to whatever extent things differed from that, there was no democracy. We’ve come a long way but there’s still work for all of us to do.”

The spoken word portion of the evening is being coordinated and directed by Jim Crisp, long-time artistic director of Theatre Macon, now retired. He had this to say of the three mayors and the Copland/Lincoln piece.

“You have three very distinct personalities,” Crisp said. “Three preeminent Macon leaders each with their distinct voice presenting the words of arguably the greatest president our country has had. I think they give his words an extra layer of power and meaning for today. I think they’re wonderfully serving what Bobby and so many of us feel so deeply, there are wounds and divisions in our country that need healing. The arts are a great place for unity and understanding. With elections only weeks away, I think this presentation is a statement to our community that as three very different leaders can come together, so can we. It’s going to be a singularly powerful moment.”

For all its potential impact, the performance of “Lincoln Portrait” is not lengthy and there remains a great evening of music to round it out: Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” Hailstork’s “Fanfare on Amazing Grace” and “Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 in G Major.”

At the helm as guest conductor is much-in-demand Rei Hotoda, director of the Fresno Philharmonic. Hotoda has many reasons to feel at home on stage directing the MMSO, the first being her shared awareness and commitment to the social good symphonies can bring. She and the Fresno Philharmonic are undertaking a multi-season series of commissions exploring and celebrating the diverse cultures of the Fresno region called Culture Crossroads.

As a guest conductor, Hotoda has appeared with prestigious orchestras, including the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Winnipeg and Kansas City. Her repertoire represents a diverse community of living composers alongside masters of classical canon. An acclaimed pianist, she at times conducts from the keyboard.

Other reasons her appearance here is in some ways a homecoming is the fact her son, cellist Constantine Janello, was a student at the McDuffie Center for Strings. Still, her friendship with McDuffie goes further back.

“I actually met Rei at my sister’s wedding 26 years ago,” McDuffie said. His sister is pianist Margery McDuffie Whatley. “She and my sister were classmates at USC then her conducting career took off. I’ve been eager to have her come direct and finally, scheduling has worked out.”

For more on the MMSO season and ticketing, go to www.mcduffie.mercer.edu/symphony.

Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com. Join him on Instagram at michael_w_pannell.