Happy Birthday, Hailstork! And welcome back, JoAnn Falletta! Virginia Arts Festival and Virginia Symphony Orchestra will celebrate the music of one of Hampton Roads’ finest artists, composer Adolphus Hailstork, in an 85th birthday celebration featuring works including An American Port of Call, First Piano Concerto, and Done Made My Vow. To make this special evening even more spectacular, the Orchestra’s Connie and Marc Jacobson Music Director Laureate and Grammy Award winner JoAnn Falletta returns for one night only to conduct a performance that includes pianist Stewart Goodyear and the acclaimed Norfolk State University Chorus. 

JoAnn Falletta was named the Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s Connie and Marc Jacobson Music Director Laureate in 2021 after serving as VSO Music Director for 29 seasons. Winner of multiple GRAMMY® Awards, she also serves as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Brevard Music Center, and Conductor Laureate of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra.

Proclaimed “a phenomenon” by the Los Angeles Times and “one of the best pianists of his generation” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished concert pianist, improviser and composer. He, famously, has performed all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas in a single day in Toronto, Princeton, Davis, CA, Dallas,and Cincinnati. Goodyear has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, just to name a few.

Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork III  has written over 250 works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, various chamber ensembles, band, orchestra, and opera. His works blend musical ideas from the African, Native American and European traditions. In 2012, a Naxos recording of his piece, An American Port of Call was released featuring the VSO. In October 2022, he was featured as “Composer of the Week” on BBC Radio 3. In 2021, Fanfare on Amazing Grace was performed by the United States Marine Band at the inauguration ceremony of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Since 1945, when Harry Savage organized the first choir, to present day, the Norfolk State University Chorus has offered a place for talented student vocalists of all majors to express themselves, nurture their talents and represent the entire University through the highest levels of performance artistry. NSU Choirs currently consists of the NSU Concert Choir, The NSU Vocal Jazz Ensemble and the Voices of Inspiration Gospel Choir.  

Fanfare on Amazing Grace
An American Port of Call
Piano Concerto No. 1
Celebration
For Those Who Serve
Still Holding On
Done Made My Vow