Audience members won’t be required to pay admission to attend the concert, but donations are encouraged.
The bridge collapsed March 26 after a container ship struck a pillar and collapsed the span. Burr-Livingstone noted that the 700-foot-wide channel is expected to reopen fully a day or two after the concert, which is free and will be conducted by Jonathon Heyward. The two previous free concerts in Baltimore were tied to community celebrations: Dia de lose Muertos, or Mexico’s Day of the Dead in late October, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day in mid-January.
The BSO will perform “Welcome Home,” which was composed and arranged for orchestra by Wordsmith and his friend and touring partner, the Nashville-based pianist Kory Caudill. Though the song was written last year, Parker said it resonates with what Baltimoreans are experiencing today. “I believe it is our duty to stand with our city in times of sorrow and healing,” Heyward wrote. “We know that music has a unique power to heal and to bring people together, so it is important to me that we use our art to offer comfort and to help in the collective recovery process.”Other musical selections, such as the finale of Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No.