By Paul Lambert, Interim Executive Director, Springfield Symphony Orchestra

Music reaches and thrives in all cultures, all communities, all nationalities, backgrounds and removes barriers of language, age and social status in the sheer enjoyment of the many forms of music in our lives.
On Saturday, January 14, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and spirit will be celebrated by the Springfield Symphony Orchestra on the Springfield Symphony Hall stage, led by Kevin Scott, an African American conductor and native New Yorker who is known as “a tireless advocate of new, unknown or unjustly neglected composers.”
Born in the Bronx and raised in Harlem, Scott has led various orchestras, choruses and bands throughout the greater New York area and in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Varna, Bulgaria. He is also a composer whose works have been performed by the orchestras of Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Minneapolis and St. Louis, and soon, Springfield.
The legacy of Black American composers in the classical realm has always embraced the message Dr. Martin Luther King intoned in 1963, that one should be judged by the content of their character and not solely by race. Increasingly performing organizations are opening their arms to explore and welcome the works of Black composers and musicians.
On January 14, concert attendees will be moved by Lift Every Voice and Sing (J. Rosamond & J. Weldon Johnson, arr. Hale Smith), Rise to the Occasion (Quinn Mason), The Audacity of Hope (O. Cargile II) and Fannie’s Homecoming, composed by the evening’s conductor who has been inspired by the legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer, a leader in the Civil Rights movement, joined by beautiful works of Florence Price and William Grant Still. The Black composers whose works will be featured are but a few of many who deserve recognition for their artistry as American composers writing in a classical genre.
Scott will be joined on the Symphony Hall stage by Artina McCain, a pianist who, throughout her career, has been dedicated to promoting the works of Black and other underrepresented composers.
Two of the composers whose works will be performed on January 14–Quinn Mason and Ozie Cargile–will be in the audience, a rare gift in the world of symphonic music. Mason is a composer and conductor based in Dallas, Texas who currently serves as Artist in Residence of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and has been described as “a brilliant composer just barely in his 20s who seems to make waves wherever he goes.” Cargile is a Los Angeles-based composer and pianist, originally from Detroit, whose music has been performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Boulder Symphony.
The Audacity of Hope will also feature a spoken word presentation by Springfield’s Poet Laureate, and a local cultural icon, Magdalena Gómez. She is a renowned and award-winning performance poet, playwright, performer, teaching artist and highly sought after keynote speaker and workshop facilitator. She is also co-founder and artistic director of Teatro V!da, building youth leadership through the arts with a special focus on the creation of youth generated multi-media performance works in collaboration with professional adult artists.
Her contribution of the spoken word in honor of Dr. King will offer testimony to the power of words, in honor of the Civil Rights icon whose prose and language moved the nation and launched a movement. Her poems have been set to music and performed Off-Broadway and across the U.S. and internationally.
Our season and the extraordinary talent we are bringing represents as broad a diversity as our Springfield community possesses. When I came on board as the Interim Director of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, I pledged to prioritize bringing a broader range of both traditional and new musical and expressive arts to our community. I look forward to welcoming audiences to an evening of celebration, hope and inspiration at Symphony Hall.

Audacity of Hope:
Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.
Saturday, January 14, 2023
at 7:30 pm
Springfield Symphony Hall
Tickets available at
SpringfieldSymphony.org ■