Page 16 - New West Symphony Oct-Nov 2024 Digital Playbill

ABOUT the ARTISTS

JOSEPH SOHM
Photo Historian | NEWORLD Story and Visuals
American History teacher turned Photographer-
Author-Public Speaker Joseph Sohm is both student
and teacher of America’s past, present and future. He
conceived “Visions of America” (previously presented
™
with the New West Symphony) as an ongoing multimedia
project dedicated to capturing the American spirit in
print and multimedia presentations. Spanning 30 years,
Sohm has traveled and photographed all 50 states.
Images from his “Visions of America” collection are
published 50,000 times worldwide a year and 500,000
times over his lifetime, through international photo agencies Getty Images, Corbis,
Shutterstock, etc. His contribution to this concert is NEWORLD, a video collage of
images depicting gorgeous American landscapes, plus a moving script narrated by
William Shatner, set to Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony.
joesohm.com

ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK
Composer, Pianist and Conductor
Acclaimed composer, pianist and conductor Adolphus
Cunningham Hailstork III was born in 1941 and grew up
in Albany, NY. He received his doctorate in composition
from Michigan State University, where he was a student
of H. Owen Reed. Hailstork has written more than 250
works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, chamber
ensembles, band, orchestra and opera.
Notable commissions include Rise for Freedom,
an opera about the Underground Railroad, premiered by the Cincinnati Opera
Company (2007); Set me on a Rock (re: Hurricane Katrina) for chorus and orchestra,
commissioned by the Houston Choral Society (2008); and I Speak of Peace
commissioned by the Bismarck Symphony in honor of (and featuring the words of)
President John F. Kennedy (2013).
Dr. Hailstork resides in Virginia Beach, VA, and is Professor of Music and Eminent
Scholar at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.
adolphushailstorkcomposer.com

16 | New West Symphony