Macon – Mercer Symphony Orchestra’s season opener partners with Macon Mayor Lester Miller and former mayors Robert Reichert and C. Jack Ellis as orators for a unique observation during an historic election season

Macon Magazine Staff
Photo by Matt Odom

When American composer Aaron Copland set out to write a piece to express the “magnificent spirit of our country,” as requested by conductor André Kostelanetz, he
chose as his muse our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln. Kostelanetz specifically asked the prolific music writer to compose a portrait of an esteemed American during World War II.

On October 21, the Macon – Mercer Symphony Orchestra (MMSO), comprised of McDuffie Center for Strings Young Artists and Atlanta Symphony
Orchestra musicians, will perform Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait”, utilzing text from his speeches, for its season opener at The Grand Opera House. Special orators are former mayors of Macon C. Jack Ellis and Robert Reichert and Mayor Lester Miller.

“While our nation is divided, Macon is healing and looking forward. Macon is bucking the trend with folks of all stripes working together to improve this beautiful
community. It’s a cause for celebration. To the extent music unites, the MMSO is privileged to present these three distinct Macon leaders, who together, will amplify the powerful words of America’s ‘Healer in Chief,’ Abraham Lincoln,” stated Robert McDuffie, founder of McDuffie Center for Strings.

How is Macon answering Lincoln’s call? We asked the mayors to share a reflection on this program as a call to our community:

“This project is significant now more than ever because of the hate and bigotry being spread in too many parts of our country. Macon’s lead in addressing some of these issues can be a beacon of hope for other communities by seeing what’s possible in closing the racial and religious divide through music.

After so many decades of division, especially along racial lines, [we have] a wonderful opportunity to experience what’s possible [in Macon] when we all work together for a shared vision and commitment to equality for all!

As one who grew up in a Jim Crow Macon, with it’s rigid segregation laws, I’m more than happy and proud to now see a place where diversity is finally being seen as a strength; something we can celebrate and not be afraid of.

This project is yet another important step on the journey to Dr Martin Luther King’s vision of the Beloved Community.”

“My prior service as a member of City Council and later, State Representative for Macon and Bibb County led me to believe that we were not going to succeed if we didn’t develop a common vision and plan for the future. Superficial divisions and fighting with ourselves was a recipe for failure. We had developed a reputation statewide for ‘not having our act together’.

When I ran for Mayor in 2007, I ran on a theme of doing things a new way, and ‘working together for a change.’ Then Chairman of the Bibb County Commission, Sam Hart, endorsed that philosophy and said ‘don’t think city, don’t think county, think community.’ That common theme launched us on the road to the success we now enjoy.

As a nation, we are again confronted with the task of developing a common theme to reconcile our differences and forge a pathway to a better future. And a ‘more perfect union’.

It is helpful to look back and appreciate the lessons from our past. The success story of Macon and Bibb County needs to be recalled, refreshed, andreplicated in othercommunities and into our national persona of ‘e pluribus unum,’ ‘from many, one!’”

“Our community is working so hard to face the issues presented by our pasts, focus on the challenges we currently face, and plan for the future…and we’re doing it together.

I went to seven elementary schools, and Southwest when it was the largest high school in the country. It all taught me that we, as people and families, face similar challenges in our lives, but we each have different ways and abilities to face them. Now, we face them together.

I feel it’s the job of the Mayor’s Office to be a convener of people and groups, to help develop a vision with each other, to bring together resources that can help, and to leverage the full weight of our government to make things better for all people.

Without our people doing the work for other people, it would not have mattered who was in the office. Our office is a convener of people and a way to allocate resources, but to be sustainable beyond 4, 8, or 12 years, it needs the input and support of the people.

And all of it must be done FOR them.”

See you at the Symphony. Monday, October 21, 7:30 p.m. The Grand Opera House.
Tickets and season subscriptions are available at thegrandmacon.com.