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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWhere to celebrate Fourth of July in the Des Moines metro<\/p>\n
The Des Moines metro will offer many options for fireworks, parades and celebrations for the United States of America’s 250th birthday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Harry Smith\u00a0is trading the anchor desk for the Iowa Capitol lawn and a new kind of script.<\/p>\n The retired CBS and NBC correspondent, who teaches a curiosity-driven liberal arts seminar at Central College in Pella, will narrate Aaron Copland\u2019s \u201cLincoln Portrait\u201d and selections from the new multimedia work \u201cAmerican Mosaic\u201d with the\u00a0Des Moines Symphony\u00a0during Yankee Doodle Pops on July 3.<\/p>\n The performance \u2014 which will feature a return appearance by hip-hop artist and spoken-word performer\u00a0Billy Weathers\u00a0and an expanded fireworks display \u2014 stitches together Smith\u2019s life in storytelling, the symphony\u2019s own 32\u2011year Fourth of July tradition and a layered look at American freedom 250 years after independence.<\/p>\n Symphony officials expect 100,000 to attend the free July 3 concert on the State Capitol grounds for what the organization calls the largest single-day concert in Iowa. The patriotic show will conclude with a fireworks display, nearly double what the Des Moines Symphony annually fires, over the downtown Des Moines skyline.<\/p>\n American composer Aaron Copland wrote \u201cLincoln Portrait\u201d in 1942 for a speaker and orchestra. Spanning about 14 minutes, it combines orchestral folk-inspired music with the spoken narration of Abraham Lincoln\u2019s words, serving as a musical monument to the 16th president.<\/p>\n See Hillary Clinton’s surprise Carnegie Hall performance<\/p>\n The former secretary of state paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln with a surprise performance of “Lincoln Portrait” at Carnegie Hall.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/media-video><\/div>\n For Smith, the invitation to narrate Copland\u2019s \u201cLincoln Portrait\u201d felt fated.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a dream a number of months ago about the \u2018Lincoln Portrait.\u2019 I thought, \u2018You know what, I would love to do that,'” he said. “A month or two later, I get this note: \u2018We want you to do the \u2018Lincoln Portrait.\u2019\u2019 OK. Harry Smith, psychic, weird, probably, but that indeed happened.\u201d<\/p>\n By the time he sat down with Des Moines Symphony staff to walk through the July 3 program, it felt eerily familiar. \u201cWhen they asked me if I would be involved, I said, \u2018Are you kidding? This is like an opportunity of a lifetime.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Smith is clear that \u201cLincoln Portrait\u201d is a chance to get out of the way. \u201cThe piece comes with specific instructions,\u201d he said. \u201cDon’t be an actor. Just read the words, just read the words, let the words speak for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n He said Copland’s music \u201csounds like America, or it sounds like the America we kind of dream about, and is the America that’s really close to our heart.\u201d<\/p>\n Much of the piece, he noted, is orchestral \u2014 which is part of the appeal. Lincoln’s words come toward the end.<\/p>\n For Des Moines Symphony music director\u00a0Joseph Giunta, Smith is a near-perfect fit for Copland\u2019s instructions.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the preface of the score, Copland specifically writes in the score that the delivery is supposed to be naturally paced, and he didn’t want someone who was going to be over the top or try to sell it or anything, just primarily read it, articulate it, be meaningful and I think that this man will do that,\u201d Giunta said.<\/p>\nSmith\u2019s \u2018opportunity of a lifetime\u2019<\/h2>\n
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