Posted on February 18, 2004 at 1:21 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) University Professor Henry Panion III, Ph.D., will conduct a performance of the Houston Symphony Orchestra April 13 in Houston, featuring the Blind Boys of Alabama in their first-ever appearance with a symphony orchestra.

Panion, who teaches music theory and music technology in the UAB Department of Music, was commissioned to write the music for the entire show, he said.

“It is always a joy for me to conduct and to have my music performed by symphony orchestras. Of course, I get great satisfaction out of working with such renowned groups as the Houston Symphony,” Panion said. The program also will feature two Houston gospel choirs, the Windsor Village Gospel Choir and the Salvation Army Harbor Light Choir.

A few of the world-class conductors of the Houston Symphony have included Leopold Stokowski, Andre Previn and Christoph Eschenbach.

This year Panion’s music will be performed by orchestras across the country, including the New Orleans Philharmonic and the Columbus, Grand Rapids, Mansfield and Alabama symphonies. He continues to write and conduct for Stevie Wonder and is expanding the show written for Chaka Khan and the Lionel Hampton Orchestra for a series of concerts planned across the United States and abroad.

For more than 60 years, the Blind Boys of Alabama have spread the spirit and energy of pure soul gospel nationwide. They are an institution themselves, having formed in the late 1930s at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind. They recently won a Grammy Award for their Christmas release of “Go Tell It On The Mountain.”