Press Release

For Immediate Release
June 28, 2005
Contact: Bill Fix
(573)751-6819

Lt. Governor Peter Kinder To Narrate Composer Aaron Copland’s “ Lincoln Portrait”with Springfield Symphony

SPRINGFIELD, MO — Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder will narrate the Springfield Symphony’s performance of American Composer Aaron Copland’s musical tribute to Abraham Lincoln, entitled Lincoln Portrait, at the annual Firefall celebration on the evening of June 25.

“I am honored to join the Springfield Symphony for their performance of Lincoln Portrait ,” said Kinder. He added, “The Springfield Symphony is a great orchestra, and I hope to help bring Aaron Copland’s musical tribute to Abraham Lincoln to life for the audience.”

Earlier this year, Lt. Gov. Kinder narrated Lincoln Portrait with the St. Louis Symphony at concerts in Columbia and St. Louis. When the St. Louis Symphony traveled to New York City, Paul Newman assumed the narrator’s role.

Copland wrote Lincoln Portrait shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, hoping that the piece would help to boost patriotic pride and morale at a time when the nation’s fortunes seemed at low ebb. In paying tribute to the 16th president, he decided to use Lincoln’s own words and to have these spoken against a background of evocative orchestral music that would “draw a simple but impressive frame around the words of Lincoln,” as the composer put it.

For more information, contact Bill Fix at 573-751-6819 or 417-234-5636.