Inspirational music and Christian hymns will fill the air at the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center on Oct. 25.

The free Hayward Brown Memorial Concert, presented by Arts of Southern Kentucky, will take place at 7 p.m. and will feature Orchestra Kentucky and the sanctuary choir of First Baptist Church.

Jeff Reed, founding music director of Orchestra Kentucky and CEO of Arts of Southern Kentucky, will lead the program.

“This program will have more of a religious theme than others,” he said.

The first half will include music from films of faith such as “The Ten Commandments,” “Prince of Egypt,” “Jesus of Nazareth,” “Chariots of Fire” and “Ben Hur.”

During the second half of the concert, the sanctuary choir of First Baptist Church will perform Christian hymns.

The concert is made possible by a gift from the estate of Hayward Brown, a member of First Baptist Church who passed away in 1987.

Brown served as the director of the senior adult program at the church, while his wife, Zella, served as the assistant director. Together, they coordinated trips, meetings and retreats and each fall, the senior adult conference was held which included a Friday night banquet.

“Mr. Brown’s initial desire was to bless our senior adult population,” said First Baptist Church Executive Pastor David Tooley. “He and his wife wanted to provide opportunities for senior adults to have enriching experiences.”

Brown left the endowment in 1987 so the Senior Adult Fellowship could continue to provide meaningful events and activities for the senior adults, including the banquet each year.

Church congregants recently decided to share Brown’s generosity with the community so more people could enjoy it.

Tooley said they haven’t been able to host the Hayward Brown Banquet for a couple of years because of the COVID-19 pandemic and they were looking for a way to bring it back.

“This partnership with Orchestra Kentucky to present a free concert to the community seemed like the perfect way to bring back Hayward Brown’s vision to bless our church and our community,” Tooley said.

Reed said the church has always been generous with the orchestra over the years, allowing them to perform school-day and evening concerts and hosting the orchestra for concerts at the church.

“I’m really looking forward to this program,” said Reed. “There’s a lot of great orchestra music and epic scores from some epic films. I’m really looking forward to conducting it.”

Although the concert is free, reservations are required in advance.

To reserve seats, visit www.theskypac.com, call 270-904-1880 or stop by the SKyPAC office at 601 College St.