Stevie Wonder Asks UAB’s Henry Panion III to Conduct, Arrange Orchestras on New 11-City Tour

By Shannon Thomason | UAB News Producer, composer, arranger and orchestrator Henry Panion III, Ph.D., will join music legend Stevie Wonder on his just-announced 11-city tour. Wonder and Panion have collaborated musically for more than 30 years. Panion will conduct orchestras for shows in each city for the tour. A 25-time Grammy winner, Wonder is an Academy Award winner and has been honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, among countless other honors. Panion is a University of Alabama at Birmingham University Professor of Music and director of Music Technology in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Music. “Stevie shared with me his desire to help spread joy, peace and love during these troubled times, a message he has been about his entire life, and asked me to serve as conductor on this tour,” Panion said. The tour, titled “Sing Your Song! As We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart,” was announced Sept. 19. Wonder will perform the select dates throughout October and Nov. 2, “at the height of a critical election season and a pivotal juncture in American politics and culture, in a call for ‘joy over anger, kindness over recrimination, peace over war,’” according to the announcement....