Actress Regina Taylor Performs with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Tonight

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is thrilled to announce that award-winning actress, playwright and director Regina Taylor will be narrating poems of Dr. Maya Angelou during the world premiere performances of newly-commissioned orchestral works this weekend, Nov. 13-14 at historic Music Hall.

The works, written by pre-eminent American composers Jonathan Bailey Holland, Kristin Kuster and T.J. Cole, are based on Dr. Angelou's poems "Forgive," "Elegy" and "Equality," which Ms. Taylor will narrate as part of the performance of the works. The concerts (11 a.m. Nov. 13 and 8 p.m. Nov. 14) mark the culmination of the CSO's annual One City, One Symphony initiative, designed to bring people together through music. Also on the concert program is Dvo?ák's beloved Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World") and Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 2.

This year's One City, One Symphony theme is "Freedom," and commemorates the 150th anniversary of the 13th Amendment and is dedicated to the legacy of Dr. Maya Angelou, who appeared with the Orchestra in November 2013 narrating Copland's Lincoln Portrait in what would be one of her final artistic projects before she passed away. (The performance was recorded and included on the CSO's most recent disc, Hallowed Ground.)

Tickets for the November 13-14 concert performances at Music Hall start at $12 and are available now by calling (513) 381-3300 or visiting www.cincinnatisymphony.org.

The CSO is grateful to Sue Friedlander for her generous sponsorship of Regina Taylor's appearance. The November 13-14 concerts are part of the Masterworks Series, which is sponsored by U.S. Bank. The Presenting Sponsor is HORAN. The ArtsWave Partner company for these concerts is Macy's.

Regina Taylor

Taylor is best known to television audiences for her role as Lily Harper in I'll Fly Away. She received a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series, 3 NAACP Image Awards and two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role.

Her other television roles include Dig, The Unit, The Education of Max Bickford, Feds, Strange Justice, Masterpiece Theatre's Cora Unashamed, Children of the Dust, I'll Fly Away: Then and Now and Howard Beach: Making a Case for Murder.

Segueing effortlessly between the big and small screen, Taylor has starred in blockbuster films alongside some of Hollywood most talented leading men. Her film credits include The Negotiator, Courage Under Fire, A Family Thing, The Keeper, Clockers, Losing Isaiah, and Lean on Me.

In addition to her film and television work, she holds the honor as being the first Black woman to play William Shakespeare's Juliet in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway. Her other theater credits include As You Like It, Macbeth, Machinal, The Illusion and Jar the Floor. Additionally, she won the L.A. Dramalogue Award for her performance in The Tempest on the West coast.

Taylor is also an accomplished playwright and director. In 2015, she directed her play stop.reset. at the Goodman Theatre about a book publisher trying to hold on to his identity as the fast tech, social changes quickly shifts the ground on which he stands. The play was on The Goodman Theatre stage in Chicago, Illinois, but the storytelling extends outside the theater's stage through diverse communities by way live events and internet portals. stop.reset originally premiered in 2013 at The Signature Company in New York City where she is a Residency Five playwright.

Her credits as playwright include Oo-Bla-Dee, for which she won the American Critics' Association new play award, Drowning Crow, (her adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull, which was produced on Broadway and starred Alfre Woodard), The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove, A Night in Tunisia, Escape from Paradise, Watermelon Rinds, and Inside the Belly of the Beast. Taylor's critically acclaimed Crowns continues to be one of the most performed musicals in the country and is the winner of four Washington D.C. Helen Hayes awards including Taylor's win for Best Direction and Best Regional Musical. Others include Magnolia and the trilogy, The Trinity River Plays which was the recipient of the 2010 Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award.* Taylor also wrote and directed Post Black, (a monologue with Micki Grant, Carmen De Lavallade and Ruby Dee) for The River Crosses Rivers II Festival at NYC's Ensemble Studio Theatre.

2015 marks her 20th year as a member and Artistic Associate at The Goodman Theatre. Taylor has received honorary doctorates from Columbia College, DePaul University and Lake Forest College. She was raised in Dallas, Texas and now lives in Chicago. www.reginataylor.com

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