Peace Meets West: Barber, Wagner, and a New Work by William Harvey

Flint Symphony Orchestra

Enrique Diemecke, music director and conductor

William Harvey, violin

Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings 

William Harvey, Seven Decisions of Gandhi 

Richard Wagner

Die Walküre, WWV 86b (Ride of the Valkyries)

Gotterdammerung: Siegfried’s Death and Funeral Music

Prelude to Tristan und Isolde

Prelude to Parsifal 

William Harvey, a Flint-born violinist, composer, and conductor has traveled the world collecting cultural music experiences that have impacted his perspective as both a performer and composer. He returns to Flint to perform his original composition Seven Decisions of Gandhi, and will give unique insight into the piece as host of the pre-concert talk. To compliment the revelation of new work that celebrates Eastern cultural traditions, the concert will open with Barber’s Adagio for Strings and conclude with some of Wagner’s most familiar pieces, all staples of the Western canon.

Where have I heard this before?  

Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings is frequently used in film to augment dramatic scenes, from Elephant Man (1980) to Platoon (1986) and Amélie (2001), bits of the score have been used in dozens of film and TV moments since the 1970s.

Richard Wagner’s music is a popular film choice to compliment the intensity of war and tragedy. Perhaps most memorably, The Ride of the Valkyries opens the Francis Ford Coppola film Apocalypse Now (1979), as a helicopter attacks a Vietnamese Village.

Inside the Music - 6:30pm 

Title: What Made Gandhi Who He Was: Do Our Decisions Define Us?

Guest Speaker: William Harvey, guest artist, violinist, composer, conductor and Flint native

William Harvey, violinist and composer

Born in Flint, Michigan in 1982, and nominated for two Latin Grammys in 2021, violinist, composer, and conductor William Harvey is the first American to serve as concertmaster of the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico. From 2010 to 2014, he taught violin and conducted the Afghan Youth Orchestra at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. He conducted that orchestra eight times for President Hamid Karzai and in 2013, on a tour to Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, received front-page coverage of the New York Times. William has served as concertmaster of orchestras in Africa and North and South America, and appeared as soloist with orchestras in the US, Mexico, Argentina, and the Philippines.

He teaches violin at the Universidad Panamericana and has a master’s degree from Juilliard and a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University. His compositions have received over 100 performances around the world. As founder and director of Cultures in Harmony, he has led more than 40 cultural diplomacy projects in 16 countries, from Pakistan to Cameroon. He has lectured at the British Parliament, worked as a consultant for the World Bank on Mali, and BN View represents him as a model.

Supporting Sponsors

Joe and Patti Higgins

Dr. Bobby and Nita Mukkamal

Dr. Mark and Genie Plucer

Dr. Stuart and Kathy Weiner

Age recommendation: No one under 5 admitted (including babes in arms)

Runtime: Approximately 2 hours 30 minutes

Including intermission

Sensory warning: Full band and loud volume.

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