Project Summary
A recording of Against War and other works from my Music for Peace Project by the Czech Chamber Orchestra Pardubice, conducted by Marek Štilec with guest artist Lisa Rombach, soprano. Scheduled for March 2024.
The donation goal for this project is $15,000.00.
Project Description
Against War. A suite of songs for voice and orchestra setting some powerful poems I found in the anthology “Poets Against the War”. The poems were written in response to a, so to speak, call to arms, by poets protesting against the decision to invade Iraq and the anthology was published in 2003. Hard to believe that was 2 decades ago – and that we are still suffering the repercussions of that misguided decision.
Doing something with these poems has been in the back of my mind for many years, but perhaps in response to everything going on these days, not just in the U.S., but abroad as well, where it feels like enough powerful fools are thumping for war, I needed to get this out of my system. Not that this, my own miniscule form of protesting for peace, will do any good….
The music is dedicated to the 11,000 or so poets who responded to the call and contributed their words and thoughts to Poets Against the War in the hope that reason would prevail over reaction. If only their effort had prevailed back then, the world would be in a better place today – but fear, hysteria and war mongering ruled the day.
In our current times, their words still ring true – and are needed more than ever.
Everything Passes. This music started off in one direction, but then reading a brief poem by Peter Levitt turned it in another direction entirely. A gentle poem, read during the same week that the world’s attention was turned to the mass shootings of innocent people in two cities in the United States, it’s imagery of rose petals falling like past lives, struck home – and became the theme of this symphony.
Declaration of Peace. Somewhere in the world, there is a war going on, always. Declared or not. If I had the power to wish it, I would simply declare peace, and leave it at that, for all time, putting an end to senseless wars. Not having that power, I’m left to imagine it, creating my own musical declaration.
As with my prior projects, this album will be self-produced and released.
