Brahms requiem Covid-19 memorial concert

On August 16, 2021, in Latest News, by The Somerville Times

August 29, 5:00 p.m., Foss Park in Somerville
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Join conductors, Holly Druckman and Lorraine Fitzmaurice, in a community performance of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem also referred to as his “Requiem for the living”. Titled as such because this work was written to pull society together with common purpose.

We are raising $15,000 for costs associated with renting and setting up spaces for performance, and honorariums for local musicians who will join us in making this momentous concert a reality. More than 100 community members have signed up to join us, and you may know some of them.

This event is grass-roots organized and needs collective contributions to make it happen. We appreciate everyone’s dedication in lending your musicianship, bringing your friends and families to experience this concert, and very importantly, choosing to make meaningful financial contributions to this concert.

Contributions may be made digitally through the “Donate to this concert” button, or via check. If donating via check, please write “Requiem for the living” on the memo line, addressed to “Carduus, Inc.” Their mailing address can be found here.

This concert lead by the efforts of Lorraine Fitzmaurice and supported by Boston based chamber choir, Carduus. All proceeds will go towards the realization of this concert, including compensation for musicians.

Free admission – Join them at Foss Park with a lawn chair or a blanket and a mask.

Program:
Brahms – Ein Deutsches Requiem and two world premieres by local composers Mattia Maurée and Ben Yee-Paulson

A requiem, traditionally speaking, is the sung collection of Latin prayers used in the November 2 Feast of All Souls. Whether performed as part of a Catholic Mass or in a concert setting, requiems commemorate those who have died in a particular community. Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem was revolutionary in that the text set is not the traditional prayers, but instead, various Bible passages written in accessible German vernacular. Brahms avoided specifically Christ-centered language, and originally wanted to title it A Human Requiem rather than A German Requiem. It is a deeply humanist work, and the text, rather than featuring the fires and lions’ jaws of hell, gives comfort to those left behind and imagines a better place for those who have departed.

This concert will also feature two premieres:

The Anonymous Soldier is a choral piece by Mattia Maurée, a Boston resident and rising star in the arts and cultural scene. They are also very active in Somerville, being, along with several of the performing musicians, a member of the Whole Tone Music Academy, which lost its Highland Ave storefront location and had to go virtual due to the pandemic. The anonymous text of Maurée’s piece deals with surviving systemic discrimination and violence. Through deep remembrance and recognition of pain, it offers a path toward personal and communal healing. The pandemic has increased systemic inequality in America, and the events of this past year and a half have made it abundantly clear that we have far to go in correcting the injustice faced by people of color. A concert won’t solve these issues, but a piece of music written by a trans composer in solidarity with those oppressed does find a good home on what will be for many their first concert after a year of protesting racial injustice during a deadly pandemic.

Hope is the Thing with Feathers is a choral piece by Brookline composer, Ben Yee-Paulson. The text is the treasured poem of the same name by Emily Dickenson, and the piece offers a glimpse of a brighter future ahead for all.

More info on the website: www.carduuschoir.com

In light of recent Delta cases, please wear a mask for this event.