James Earl Jones headlines Gettysburg Festival's signature event: "Lincoln Portrait"

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Karen Hendricksk

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(717) 334-0853

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The Gettysburg Festival announced that world famous actor James Earl Jones will be featured in the signature event for 2009, the inspirational and beloved American orchestral piece, Aaron Copland’s A Lincoln Portrait, on Friday, June 19 in Gettysburg’s Majestic Theater. 

Composed in 1942, Copland’s A Lincoln Portrait comforted the nation through World War II with inspirational music and quotations from the nation’s 16th president. Viewed as a contemporary commentary for the times, the narration for Lincoln Portrait speaks eloquently on the subject of slavery, and reflects a post war era concern for economic justice and support for the international quest for freedom.

“Delivering Abraham Lincoln’s immortal words when narrating the moving and patriotic Lincoln Portrait is always an honor, but to do it in the same town where he delivered his famed Gettysburg Address makes this performance particularly special,” said Jones. “The Gettysburg Festival is a perfect setting for artists from around the country to be a part of something unique, and I am genuinely looking forward to being there this June.”

The Gettysburg Festival, June 18-28, offers about 100 cultural events in all genres of the arts including culinary arts, brass, jazz, orchestra, theater, cabaret, visual arts and children’s events.

The 65-member Festival Orchestra sets the stage for an inspirational night of American classics on June 19 with Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and Appalachian Spring, Gershwin’s Concerto in F, Randy Edelman’s Symphony Suite from the film Gettysburg, concluding with the stirring  A Lincoln Portrait.  The prestigious orchestra is comprised of musicians culled from throughout the mid-Atlantic region.  The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. and is sponsored in part by The Gettysburg Foundation, as a program of The David Bruce Smith Education Initiative supported by the Robert H. Smith Family Foundation.

The event is sanctioned by the National Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and the Pennsylvania Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission in celebration of the 200^th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth in 2009.

Tickets are on sale through the Majestic Theater Box Office and are priced at $75, $80 and $84.  Tickets are available on line through the Festival website www.gettysburgfestival.org with links to the Majestic website, www.gettysburgmajestic.org, or by calling the Majestic Theater Box Office at (717) 337-8200.  A Dessert Reception, to be held next-door to the Majestic at the historic Gettysburg Railroad Station, is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, with the project being financed in part by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Community and Economic Development.  Dessert Reception tickets are available through the Festival office, $55, online at www.gettysburgfestival.org or by calling (717) 334-0853 during business hours.