Wright State University’s School of Music is hosting Harmony in the Heartland on Sunday, Oct. 25 to celebrate peace in the Miami Valley.
Originally dubbed Holidays in the Heartland, the university has hosted this annual event since 1996. The concert was originally held in local churches, but has since been moved to the Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center in downtown Dayton to accommodate for the growing audience.
“The Schuster Center is a world-class performance venue, and we like for our students to have the experience of performing in a professional venue that is certainly bigger than anything we have here at Wright State,” said Dr. James Tipps, associate professor of music at WSU. “We also have the benefit of presenting Wright State off of campus just so that people know what the School of Music is about.”
In stark contrast to last year’s war-themed Holidays in the Heartland concert, the Collaborative Education, Leadership and Innovation in the Arts (CELIA) sponsored event has been re-branded Harmony in the Heartland this year to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords, an agreement originally reached in Dayton, Ohio that put an end to the three-and-a-half year Bosnian War. The concert will also be a celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
The concert is a collaborative effort by WSU’s entire School of Music. Wright State’s Women’s Chorale, Men’s Chorale, Collegiate Chorale, University Chorus, ETHOS, Chamber Orchestra and Trumpet Ensemble will provide music from an array of styles to diversify the night. Cappella, a branch of the Kettering Children’s Choir, and soloist and professor of music at WSU Dr. Peter Keates will also be featured.
“It’s always a thrill to have all of the groups together,” Tipps said. “It’s always hard to put everyone together because of the size of all of the groups and all of the logistics, but we’re able to do that easily at the Schuster Center.”
Videos, photographs and art will be projected on a screen throughout the performance, rounding out the musical program and informing and entertaining attendees about Dayton’s rich history.
The event will take place in the Schuster Center’s Mead Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Single adult tickets are available online or by phone for $12. Discounted tickets for students, seniors, veterans and active duty military are $10. For more information, visit ticketcenterstage.com or call (888) 228-3630.
