From Darkness to Light
Sunday, March 9, 2025 3PM
Church of the Covenant
67 Newbury St, Boston, MA 02116
KAREEM ROUSTOM, There Will Come Soft Rains
GREG BULLEN, The Orchard
Guest Artists:
Michael Bellofatto, french horn
SHAWN KIRCHNER, Heavenly Home
Coro Allegro presents a program which confronts some of the worst of humanity, but ultimately shows a path to the best in us and our hopes for the future. The concert features the World Premiere of There Will Come Soft Rains, an anti-war composition that takes its title from Sara Teasdale's famous poem. Composed by the Emmy-nominated Syrian-American composer Kareem Roustom, the work is scored for chorus, orchestra and features Michael Bellofatto on French horn. An internationally acclaimed composer, Kareem Roustom is a Professor of Music at Tufts University. The work sets to music texts from the Bible and three poems by Andreas Gryphius, Annie Fields and Sara Teasdale. All four texts—spanning millennia of human experience—offer a response to and a reflection on a war that defined each author's time. This new work poses fundamental questions: Why do we fight wars again and again? Do we not realize what is at stake?
The concert continues with a new orchestral arrangement of Greg Bullen's sometimes dark, yet whimsical song cycle The Orchard. Based on the poetry of William Carlos Williams, it includes the poem "This Is Just to Say." Coro premiered this work in its original instrumentation in 2013. Finally, we present two selections from Shawn Kirchner's Heavenly Home, which celebrates the hope and longed-for peace and joy of life after death. Anchored in American spiritual music from the 19th century, the work draws on both the folk and shape note traditions to create a moving and uplifting a cappella choral experience. It will be a concert to be remembered.
