Lucas Richman. Symphony: This Will Be Our Reply

Performed by the Bemidji Symphony Orchestra (BSO), the Bemidji Choir, The Bemidji Chorale, and the Park Rapids Classic Chorale led by Dr. Beverly Everett at its Symphony: This Will Be Our Reply concert, held at Bemidji High School Auditorium on April 28, 2019 with composer Lucas Richman introducing the Midwest premiere of his composition.
PROGRAM NOTE
In celebration of the Leonard Bernstein Centenary (August 25, 2018), Lucas Richman received permission from the Leonard Bernstein Office to create a new work for chorus and orchestra inspired by the speech Maestro Bernstein delivered to the United Jewish Fund two days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Known as “An Artist’s Response to Violence,” the speech addresses the manner in which musicians might best use their abilities in the aftermath of tragedy:
This will be our reply to violence:
to make music more intensely,
more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before. *
-- Leonard Bernstein
The three movements of Richman’s Symphony: This Will Be Our Reply (Intensity-Beauty-Devotion) expand upon these three directives, exploring the contrasts of great beauty and horrific violence that pervade our modern era. The work ultimately resolves with an anthemic setting of an original poem which frames the ancient Hebrew text, “L’Takken et Ha’Olam (Repair the World),” uplifting the essence of Bernstein’s profound message.
* Used by the permission of The Leonard Bernstein Office, Inc.
(Program notes are from the Bemidji Symphony Orchestra’s 2018-19 concert program, p.37. and were written by composer Lucas Richman)
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This activity was funded, in part, by a grant from the Region 2 Arts Council funded by an appropriation from the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the State’s General Fund.
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