DCINY Opens Fall Season With Two US Premieres Commemorating The Centenary Of The End Of The First World War

DCINY hosts the US premieres of Welsh composer Paul Mealor's Requiem: The Souls of the Righteous and British composer Patrick Hawes' most important work to date, The Great War Symphony, a choral symphony. Both works commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War and will be presented at Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, Carnegie Hall on Veterans Day, November 11, 2018, 8:30 PM, on the exact centenary of the Armistice. For tickets and information, visit DCINY. Tickets start at $20.

The premiere of the first requiem by royal composer Paul Mealor - he created the ceremonial music for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton - was composed to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War. Mealor has spent more than two years working with Welsh poet Grahame Davies to create a 'reflective and poignant tribute to peace'.

Mealor describes his 40-minute requiem as one of the most challenging in his compositional career as he felt a great responsibility to create a 'fitting tribute to those who lost their lives in this war and all wars'. He said: "Those who fought in the war undoubtedly experienced horror and pain but through their letters, it is clear that they still managed to find friendship and humanity and I felt it was important to have something pertinent and special to reflect this.
I hope this comes out through my music." The words by Grahame Davies celebrate peace and reconciliation.

Patrick Hawes' The Great War Symphony is written in four movements, each one reflects each year of the war - Praeludium (1914-1915), March (1915-1916), Elegy (1916-1917), and Finale (1917-1918). The music is set to the affecting words of war including Wilfred Owen's 1914, Siegfried Sassoon's Hell Let Loose, and Margaret Postgate Cole's The Falling Leaves, as well as lesser-known lines from Sydney Bolitho's Gallipoli and Moina Michael's We Shall Keep The Faith. Listen to Hawes' interview, here: The Great War Symphony

Commenting on the final stages, Patrick Hawes said: "Since completing the work in the Spring, it has been full steam ahead with the recording at Abbey Road studios, and during July, we traveled around the UK recording the Scottish, Welsh, and Irish choirs. As the final pieces of the jigsaw come together, and more and more stories emerge from the project's singers and players with First World War connections, I am realizing even more what an important memorial in music this is."

The work will celebrate its world première at Classic FM Live at the Royal Albert Hall on October 9, 2018, in aid of SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity. The recording of the work at Abbey Road Studios will be released on September 21, 2018, on the Classic FM label.

Both US premieres will be performed by Distinguished Concerts Orchestra and Distinguished Concerts Singers International. The mass choir of singers includes members of the Kansas City Kansas Community College Choir (KS), St Columba Anglican School Chamber Choir (Australia), Lauderdale Community Choir (Scotland), Grand Union Community Choir (UK), The Village School Concert Choir (TX), The Cecilian Singers (Hong Kong), Plainfield High School Chamber Choir (CT), Jubilate Chorale (WI), Ulster University Chamber Choir, South West Philharmonia & Chorus (UK), Tapestry (UK), Pangbourne Choral Society (UK), Candover Valley Choir (UK), The New Mexico Peace Choir (NM), Canadian Military Wives Choir (Canada), Madrigal Choir of the Maristen-Gymnasium Furth (Germany), and The Cecilia Consort (UK).

DCINY is proud to announce that this concert presentation was endorsed by the World War 1 Centennial as an official partner of the World War I Centennial Commission. "The Commission believes that DCINY will further the Commission's goals of educating the American people about the causes, courses and consequences of World War I, commemorating U.S. involvement in that war, and honoring the service and sacrifice of American servicemen and women in the war," says Daniel S. Dayton, Executive Director, World War I Centennial Commission

The Commission was established by the U.S. Congress under the World War I Centennial Commission Act, Pub. L. No. 112-272. The role of the Commission is, among other things, to develop programs to commemorate the centennial of World War I, and to encourage and facilitate the activities of private and State and local organizations commemorating the centennial.