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<\/p>\nOn Sunday May 5th, the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus\u00a0performed the Mozart Solemn Vespers, African-American Spirituals, and Verdi at a concert dedicated to the memory of Lyndon LaRouche\u00a0in Little Italy of the Bronx. The chorus was joined by five professional soloists and orchestra, and everything, except the\u00a0Bach organ prelude was performed at the Verdi tuning of c=256 Hz.<\/p>\n
250-300 people turned out in the pouring rain to hear this wonderful program, which opened with the church organist playing a Bach organ prelude, and ended with Italian Opera arias sung by\u00a0the soloists. Although there were several young children in the crowd, there was not a sound, except applause, which erupted\u00a0after the first amen in the Vespers. One person commented that the Vespers was performed in such a transparent way that the genius of Mozart leapt out at him\u2014the orchestra playing\u00a0counterpoint to the chorus, as another voice, and not a unison.<\/p>\n
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Having everyone’s best loved Italian Opera arias sung by\u00a0African-American, Chinese, and Greek soloists definitely demonstrated the universal quality of great music, and thrilled\u00a0the Italian-Americans in the audience, and several were heard to be singing along by the end.<\/p>\n
Also in attendance was the Ambassador from Sri Lanka to the\u00a0UN, who was recognized by the priest and by Dennis Speed in his welcoming remarks, who expressed a dedication to the memory of those who had perished in the Easter massacres in Sri Lanka, killing over 300 people, including children in Sunday School. In\u00a0dedicating the concert to Lyndon LaRouche, Dennis quoted from\u00a0LaRouche’s review of the Mozart opera La Clemenza di Tito<\/em>, and spoke\u00a0of Lyndon’s critical insights and support for the choral process in\u00a0Manhattan.<\/p>\n “So, Mozart speaks to you personally, through La Clemenza\u00a0di Tito<\/em>, from the operatic stage. “Mozart does not preach; he evokes the experience of the discovery of the principle of agap\u00eb<\/em>\u00a0within the cognitive\u00a0experience of the individual member of the audience, by means of the unfolding, ironical development within the drama as a whole. In the history of Christianity, for example, it has been the\u00a0similar re-experiencing of the Passion of Christ from Gethsemane through and beyond the Crucifixion, which has been the artistic quality of reliving that impassioned experience upon which the\u00a0strength of Christianity has depended. There is perhaps no more conclusive demonstration of that, than is supplied by J.S. Bach’s “…At the time of his death, and earlier, Mozart was\u00a0essentially a leading Christian of his time, as his Ave Verum Corpus<\/em>\u00a0expresses this principle of Classical artistic composition with wonderful succinctness.”\u00a0<\/blockquote> \u2014 Lyndon LaRouche<\/p><\/div>\n The chorus, now in its 5th year, has 80 members from\u00a0Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and northern NJ, and the singers range in age from 27 to 89, and include college students, young\u00a0professionals and retired people, a Chinese concert pianist, and\u00a0a Bishop from a Church in Harlem, who also speaks German. They\u00a0have all developed over the years, to the point that new members often flee, intimidated by the quality of the Manhattan rehearsal, and we have to call them back and assure them that\u00a0many of the people they think sound so good, also couldn’t read music when they joined. (And many still can’t.)<\/p>\n The audience was largely from the neighborhood of the\u00a0church, which is a very well-known Italian area, and has Italian shops, restaurants and bakeries which have been in the same families for over a century, in several cases. Italian-Americans from all over Westchester County, NJ and Connecticut come here to\u00a0get their favorite Italian foods. These shop owners have been regular patrons of the chorus, buying ads in our programs for the last 3 years, and always asking us, “When are you going to hold a\u00a0concert in the Bronx???” They were thrilled that we finally were at their church, Our Lady of Mount Carmel.<\/p>\n The associate priest, who is from Ghana, loved every minute\u00a0of the concert and asked us to come back. When we said, “Yes, maybe next year.” He said, “I wish you could be here every day!”<\/p>\n
\n“All Classical art speaks directly to you, as an individual\u00a0personality; it addresses the question each of us must ask ourselves at some point in our lives, or perhaps even repeatedly,
\n‘Who am I, and what are we? Since we are all born, and shall die,\u00a0what is the meaning of that individual existence we occupy between birth and death? What is the continuation of that life,\u00a0even after we are dead?’ Thus, great Classical art touches the same issues as Christianity and the themes of Judaism treated by the great Moses Mendelssohn.<\/p>\n
\nSt. Matthew Passion<\/em>.<\/p>\nVideo coming soon!<\/h2>\n