Thank you to all who joined us at The Concert to End Hate on October 4th, 2023! It was amazing to see so many in our community join together in the name of love and acceptance. We hope you feel inspired to work on changing attitudes, behaviors, and systems in our community; especially by engaging with those who hold views that you may find difficult to understand.
Music has a way of opening hearts and connecting us to one another. Thank you to RPO trumpeter Herb Smith, his Freedom Trio, Strings for Success, and the Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra for demonstrating the joy of artistic expression as an antidote to hate.
“When they teach you how to spot a fake dollar bill, they don’t teach you what a counterfeit looks like. They show you how to recognize what’s real so you can spot a fake a mile away. Likewise, we want to show people real love and joy as the best counter to hate.”
— Herb Smith
Concert Order
Coming Together by Herb Smith
(World Premiere)
Herb Smith & Orchestra
Concerto in D by G.P. Telemann
Herb Smith & Orchestra
Excerpt from "Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings" by Joy Harjo
read by Trish Corcoran
French Folk Song/Take 5 by Joseph Canteloube / Dave Brubeck
Stand By Me by Ben E. King
Strings for Success
Excerpt from "Love Beyond Boundaries"
by Maria Gonzalez
read by Sady Alvarado-Fisher
Until I Met You by Count Basie
and Duke Ellington
Gibbs Street Weirdness (Original)
Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra
Excerpt from "The Place Where We Are Right" by Yehuda Amichai
read by Assembly
Member Sarah Clark
3 Songs From the Underground Railroad: A Harriet Tubman Celebration Arr.
by John Gabriel
Boogie Woogie
Strings for Success
Excerpt from "Sea Prayer"
by Khaled Hosseini
read by Amal Abdi
"Human Family" by Maya Angelou
read by Esther Winter
Healing by Herb Smith with
"Go Slow by Langston Hughes
Herb Smith & Ochestra
read by Doug Curry
Coming Together by Herb Smith
Strings for Success
Excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank
read by Javier Benzan
Thank you to our sponsors!
MEET THE PERFORMERS
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Voted “Best Instrumentalist” of Rochester 2022 by City Magazine, Herb Smith currently holds the third trumpet position in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and the principal trumpet position in the Gateways Festival Orchestra and the Gateways Brass Collective. He has played wth such notable musicians as Jeff Beck, Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, the O’Jays, Johnny Mathis, and Doc Severinsen, to name but a few. He has been a frequent guest soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Rochester Philharmonic.
Herb is a regular guest conductor with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. He frequently conducts the Symphoria orchestra based in Syracuse, NY and currently directs the Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra. Herb recently conducted and curated a Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Brass performance of Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” at a Black Lives Matter rally and a concert honoring Harriet Tubman. This performance united the City of Rochester, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and neighborhood churches in honor of Tubman’s bicentennial celebration. As a composer, Herb has been commissioned by brass ensembles, high school choirs, jazz ensembles and trumpet ensembles in addition to writing for his jazz trio and the Gateways Brass Collective.
Strings for Success is a free, inclusive and innovative instrumental strings program. Strings for Success is a partnership between The Center for Youth and the Dr. Charles T. Lunsford School 19 in the Rochester City School District and is open to students in the 3rd-8th grade.
Strings for Success students have performed with professional, college, and community orchestras, at festivals and in various museums and concert halls. Their past field trips have included travel to Albany, Washington DC, New York City, and Boston, where SFS students have performed at historical sites such as the Capital (for a Congressional Briefing on the Arts), the 911 Memorial, and the JFK Presidential Museum and Library.
Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra is a unique, high-level jazz program, consisting of the extended area’s top high school jazz musicians. This ensemble’s primary focus is on developing the student’s technique, improvisational skills and deepening their understanding of jazz. Includes rhythm, saxophone, trumpet or trombone sectionals.
The band plays throughout the year at Eastman and in the Greater Rochester area including the Rochester International Jazz Festival. The students in the band are often intending to major in music at the college level.