HSO—American Portraits

AMERICAN PORTRAITS | SAT, APR 18, 2026 | 7:30PM | Shriver Hall

*Tickets Go On Sale August 1, 2025

In our final program of the season, HSO will take on two great musical portraits. Copland’s Lincoln Portrait sets some of Abrham Lincoln’s most stirring words to music in this powerful piece, commissioned during World War II to express the “magnificent spirit of our country.” We pair this work with a newly commissioned piece by American Veteran and composer, J. Kimo Williams. This new work, Douglass Portrait, is based upon the text of another great American hero—Maryland’s own Frederick Douglass. Both works will be narrated by JHU alum and Shakespearean actor Gerrad Alex Taylor. We open the program with the winners of HSO’s biannual concerto competition. As we conclude our season, we celebrate Johns Hopkins, Maryland, and America in this program that speaks so compellingly to freedom and courage in the face of adversity.

Performances by HSO Concerto Competition Winners, TBD

J. KIMO WILLIAMS: Douglass Portrait (HSO commission, world premiere)—Gerrad Alex Taylor, narration

COPLAND: Lincoln Portrait—Gerrad Alex Taylor, narration

Gerrad Alex Taylor, narration