FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 28, 2009

MPT, Lewis Museum Partner for Free Musical Screening

Owings Mills, MD—The founder and artistic director of the nation’s premiere African American orchestra will host a free screening of Maryland Public Television’s (MPT) Song in a Strange Land at Baltimore’s Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History Thursday, July 30 at 5 p.m.

MPT partners with the museum partner for a special “Thursdays at the Lewis” event featuring Darin Atwater of Baltimore-based Soulful Symphony. MPT’s Song in a Strange Land, a 90-minute genre-crossing musical celebration featuring Atwater’s original compositions, premiered on MPT in February. Atwater will narrate highlights of the program while attendees enjoy the museum’s summer hours.

While this event is free, “Thursdays at the Lewis,” the museum’s new summer extended hours program, offers a reduced admission of $5 and includes a bar (with drinks and light fare for purchase) along with the opportunity to view the museum’s permanent galleries and special exhibition, East Side Stories, and to shop at the museum store, which offers a 10% discount to all visitors every Thursday.

Founded by Atwater in 2000, Soulful Symphony is a 75-member ensemble comprised of some of the finest instrumentalists and vocalists in the country. As a composer, conductor and pianist, Atwater’s skills in the idioms of classical, jazz and sacred music have earned him a distinguished international reputation. Among his many honors and recognitions, Ebony magazine dubbed him one of the “30 Leaders of the Future,” the Baltimore Business Journal placed him on their exclusive “40 under 40” list and he recently received the 2008 Legends and Pioneers Award by The Afro American Newspapers.

Song in a Strange Land will re-air on MPT Sunday, September 13 at 9 p.m.

The Reginald F. Lewis Museum is Baltimore’s premier facility highlighting the history and accomplishments of African Americans with a special focus on Maryland’s African American community. A Smithsonian affiliate, the museum is the East Coast’s largest African American museum occupying an 82,000 square-foot facility with ample permanent and special exhibition space, interactive learning environments, auditorium, resource center, oral history recording studio, museum shop, café, classrooms, meeting rooms, outside terrace and reception areas. The museum is located near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor at the corner of Pratt and President Streets. For more information, please call 443-263-1800 or visit the museum’s website at AfricanAmericanCulture.org.

For more information on MPT, visit mpt.org. For this and other press releases, visit the MPT pressroom.