- Requiem for the Fallen -

Oratorio for soprano, choir and orchestra

The first Piano Concerto ‘Imagine New York’ evoking Freedom and the Statue of Liberty opened a concert for peace in 2021 .

Decades before, as a teenager, I rode my bike through the crosses of Flanders Fields after reading the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ written during WWI. Much later I composed the Oratorio ‘Requiem for the Fallen’ as a tribute to the countless victims of WWI and WWII and included the poem in the lyrics.

The Oratorio was first played in 2018 in France for the Centennial of WWI. Most of the youth orchestra players had a relative who fought in that war. The following year, the expanded version of the Oratorio premiered in New York at Carnegie Hall, with the Consul of Belgium in attendance.

Additional performances of the Oratorio took place in Moscow. In 2020 the U.S. Embassy underwrote a concert in commemoration of the cooperation during WWII, and in 2021 there was a public concert for peace. Afterwards, guests waved ‘heart’ and ‘I love you’ hand signs over Zoom to us in Washington and a Bishop, pointing to the golden cross on his chest, called the Oratorio ‘Music for Peace’. . *** Videos of the Oratorio ‘Requiem for the Fallen’, the Piano Concerto ‘Imagine New York’ and other works are posted under VIDEOS. Since 2023, pandemic and wars have prevented additional events.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our places; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
in Flanders Fields.

by: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
MD (1872 – 1918)
Canadian Army