Southern Miss Symphony Orchestra to Present “Bars of Red,” Welcoming Pulitzer Prize-Winning Composer Julia Wolfe

The University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra will present “Bars of Red” on Thursday, March 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the Mannoni Performing Arts Center Auditorium on the Hattiesburg campus. 

The program centers on Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe’s “Her Story,” a sweeping work commemorating the centennial of the 19th Amendment and the fight for women’s suffrage. Wolfe will be in attendance as part of the New York-based production team Bang on a Can, the presenting organization for “Her Story.”

Co-commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony, “Her Story” premiered in Nashville, honoring Tennessee’s pivotal role in ratification of the amendment. The Southern Miss performance marks the first time a collegiate ensemble has presented the work.

Scored for orchestra and women’s chorus with staging, lighting and video elements, “Her Story” blends classical and contemporary idioms in a genre-defying score that includes electric guitar, electric bass and expansive percussion within a large orchestra. A select chorus of Southern Miss students — prepared visually by Bang on a Can — will perform the vocal parts originally written for the professional ensemble Lorelei.

Music director Dr. Gregory Wolynec said the work represents both an artistic and educational milestone for the university.

“Opportunities like this don’t come along often,” Wolynec said. “This piece asks everything of us musically, technically and emotionally. It’s ambitious, it’s demanding, and it places our students at the center of a national artistic conversation. That’s exactly where they belong.”

The evening’s program traces a broader musical arc of the early 20th century. Maurice Ravel’s “Pavane pour une infante défunte” opens the concert with refined orchestral color and delicate lyricism. George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” follows, fusing jazz influences with symphonic form in a portrait of 1920s Paris, complete with saxophones and taxi horns. Together, the works progress from intimacy to exuberance, culminating in Wolfe’s meditation on voice, memory and civic change. 

In advance of the concert, the School of Music will host a public panel discussion Wednesday, March 25, at 6:30 p.m. in Marsh Auditorium on the Hattiesburg campus. Admission is free.

The discussion will feature Wolfe alongside several distinguished scholars: human rights historian Allida Black; Heather Marie Stur, co-director of the Dale Center for the Study of War & Society; and Rebecca Tuuri, co-director of the university’s Center for the Study of the Gulf South. The conversation will explore themes of history, women’s voices and social change.

Black is widely recognized for her scholarship on Eleanor Roosevelt and the development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She has written or edited 10 books and has led international workshops on human rights, conflict resolution and women’s leadership.

Stur, a Fulbright Program scholar, is the author of four books, and her commentary has appeared in outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post and the BBC. 

Tuuri also holds faculty appointments in the university’s Center for Black Studies and the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies. Her book “Strategic Sisterhood: The National Council of Negro Women in the Black Freedom Struggle” received the Julia Cherry Spruill Prize from the Southern Association of Women Historians. 

While the panel discussion is free, remaining tickets for “Bars of Red” are available online or by calling 601.266.5418.

About the School of Music

The School of Music at The University of Southern Mississippi is the state’s flagship music program and a destination campus for the study of music across the region, the United States and the world. Housed within the College of Arts and Sciences, the school offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees and has earned a national and international reputation for excellence. Its distinguished faculty members are active performers and educators who appear on stages from local communities to major international venues. The School of Music is home to acclaimed band, choral, orchestral, jazz, opera and musical theater ensembles and provides extensive solo and chamber music performance opportunities. Students regularly perform at regional, national and international events and work with leading guest artists in preparation for careers as 21st century performers and educators.