MUSCATINE, Iowa – A $9,900 Iowa Arts Council grant is providing the Muscatine Symphony Orchestra with the opportunity to honor Muscatine’s history.

The money will be used to commission composer Tracey Rush of Dubuque to write the score for the Symphony project, “Musical Images of Historic Muscatine.”

 Rush, 54, will compose a score to accompany a showing of early 20th century photographs  taken by Muscatine photographer Oscar Grossheim.

  Muscatine Symphony Orchestra conductor Brian Dollinger gives Symphony finance committee chairman Richard Sessler credit for securing the grant.

“He has been working tirelessly throughout the year with grant applications as well as continued sources of funding through our Corporate Sponsorship Program,” said Dollinger.

Dollinger said the idea for the project originated after the Symphony performed at the world premiere of “Muscatine! The Musical,” in 2007.

The production was written and directed by the late Peter Press and his wife, Marie, who still lives in Muscatine, with musical pieces written by Dan Warschauer of Muscatine and by Jim Post of Galena, Ill.

Grossheim photographs, some of which were displayed during the production, provided inspiration for the scenes in the musical, said Dollinger.

“There is such a rich river heritage here in Muscatine and much of it has been captured on film by Mr. Grossheim,” said Dollinger.

Dollinger said multimedia technology will be used to integrate the music and photos.

“Multimedia technology has made standard symphonic concerts more interactive,” he said. “And it continues to open up the world of symphonic music to more and more new concert goers.”

Dollinger said the Symphony went through the Iowa Composers Forum to select a composer for the work.

The Symphony’s board of directors selected Rush after listening to her perform.

Rush, founder and executive director of the Northeast Iowa School of Music in Dubuque, holds a bachelor of science degree in music education from Bob Jones University, Greenville, S.C. She earned her master of music education degree from the University of Northern Iowa and has had more than 20 commissions.

“I want to really do my homework on this, and research everything,” said Rush, who views the Grossheim collection  online through the Upper Mississippi Valley Digital Image Archive. “Photographs are just an image of a person or place; what it represents has a story behind it. Those are real people, real places. I want my music to be a real representation of those people and places, too.”