Morgan/ BSO Give Musical Tribute to the Late Nathan Carter

- Memorial Concert at Morgan is Free to the Public -

“America’s Best College Choir” and one of the nation’s finest symphony orchestras are together again!

The Morgan State University Choir and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will honor the late Dr. Nathan M. Carter, Jr. in a special memorial concert on Friday, September 17, 2004. The 8:00 p.m. concert will take place in the elegant Gilliam Concert Hall of the Carl Murphy Fine Arts Center on the campus of Morgan State University and is free to the public.

“There is no better way to celebrate the life of Dr. Carter than through the music that he loved so much,” said Morgan President Earl S. Richardson. “This concert will be a commemoration of the era that he ushered in here at Morgan and the legacy that he leaves behind.”

Dr. Richardson thanked the BSO, which was also exploring ways to appropriately honor Dr. Carter. “I applaud the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for agreeing to fit this concert into its already tight schedule and for its offerto forego its usual fee for this performance,” he said. “This allowed us the opportunity to have this concert open to all and free of charge. It is what Dr. Carter would have wanted.”

The first half of the concert will be conducted by Dr. Eric Conway, acting chairman of the Department of Fine Arts at Morgan, and will feature music either composed or arranged by Dr. Carter. The second half of the concert will feature excerpts from George Gerswhin’s Porgy and Bess, and will be conducted by Maestro Yuri Temirkanov, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s music director. The performance also reunites vocalists Arthur Woodley, Kishna Davis and Stephen Jones, who are donating their talent for this tribute. They were the featured soloists in the 2002 concert that originally brought Maestro Temirkanov and Dr. Carter together.

“The entire world has lost someone who had a gift that was so special, so rare, ” said the BSO’s Music Director, Yuri Temirkanov. “Nathan Carter made the human voice become like an angel that carried music to each person individually. He was a treasure and we are all richer for having had the opportunity to make music with him.”

Dr. Carter took the Morgan State University Choir to international prominence, performing on many continents, in places such as Prague, Paris, Africa, the Beethoven International Festival in Bonn, Germany and, most recently, to St. Petersburg, Russia, at the invitation of Maestro Temirkanov. In May of this year, the choir was named America’s Best College Choir by Reader’s Digest magazine. Dr. Carter was the choir’s director for 34 years until his death on July 15, 2004.

Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a coeducational institution offering more than 60 academic programs leading to bachelor’s degrees as well as programs at the master’s and doctoral levels. As Maryland’s public urban university, Morgan serves a multi-ethnic and multi-racial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. For more information on Morgan State University, visit www.morgan.edu.