Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season March-April 2016 | Page 32

{ program notes
Sullivan Awards. His work with Opera
Theatre of Saint Louis earned him the
Richard Gaddes Award.
Lester Lynch is making his debut with
the BSO.

Morgan State University Choir and
Eric Conway last appeared with the BSO
in December 2015, for A Gospel Christmas, with Eric Conway conducting.

About the concert:

Morgan State University Choir

Porgy and Bess

Eric Conway is the director of the Morgan
State University Choir and the chairperson
of Morgan’s Fine and Performing Arts
Department. As director, he has travelled
all over the world, directing the choir in the
Czech Republic, Ghana, South Africa and
Colombia, to name a few destinations.
Dr. Conway is a doctoral graduate of
the Peabody Conservatory of Music of
the Johns Hopkins University, where he
majored 
in piano and conducting and received the prestigious Liberace scholarship.
The Morgan Choir has performed with
several major symphony orchestras, including The Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic
and the National Symphony Orchestra.
Under Dr. Conway’s direction, the choir
has appeared in the Grammy-nominated
recording of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass
with the BSO.
Dr. Conway has led the choir to many
acclaimed performances, including a
special performance at the service honoring
Rosa Parks, the first woman to lie in honor
at our nation’s Capitol Rotunda.
In July
2006, the choir traveled to Prague for two
concerts with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. In 2008, MSUC performed
at Carnegie Hall on two separate occasions;
under the baton of Bobby McFerrin with
the St. Luke’s Orchestra and with Marin
Alsop and the BSO. For further information, see www.msuchoir.org

Born in Brooklyn, New York,
September 26, 1898; died in Beverly Hills,
California, July 11, 1937

Eric Conway, director

30 O v ertur e |

Morgan State
University Choir

www. bsomusic .org

George Gershwin

On an October night in 1926, George
Gershwin, wound up from rehearsals of
his Broadway-bound musical Oh! Kay,
found himself unable to sleep. At 28, he
was the toast of American music. He had
created the scores of numerous hit Broadway shows and was already considered
one of the country’s best songwriters. But
he was a restless artist, always looking