Ragtime ‘Brooklyn Two-Step’

Oratorio ‘Requiem for the Fallen’

Piano Concerto ‘Imagine New york’

Alto Saxophone & Strings Concerto ‘Springtime in Chicago’

Spiritual Cantata ‘Tears of the Earth’

Piano Concerto for the Left Hand ‘Between war and Peace’

Ave Maria

Underlying these works is a message of hope and mutual respect

‘Imagine New York’, the first Piano Concerto evoking Freedom and the Statue of Liberty, opened a concert for peace in Moscow, in 2021. This concert followed the 2018 premiere of the Concerto for Piano and Band ‘Destination West’ where the imagery of the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad is a reminder of the harsh westward expansion of America.

Decades before becoming a composer, as a Belgian teenager, I rode my bike through the crosses of Flanders’ war cemeteries, after having read the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ written during WWI. I wondered about the dead.

Much later, with these memories still lingering on my mind, I composed ‘Requiem for the Fallen’ an oratorio for soprano, choir and orchestra on ‘In Flanders Fields’, as a tribute to the victims of wars in Europe, America and beyond.

The first version of the Oratorio was played in 2018 in southwest France for the Centennial of WWI. Most of the town’s youth orchestra players had a relative who had fought in that war.

A year later, the final version of the Oratorio premiered at Carnegie Hall, with the Consul of Belgium in attendance. More performances took place in Moscow: In 2020, the U.S. Embassy underwrote a concert to commemorate the cooperation in WWII. In late 2021, a public concert for peace took place in a major art gallery downtown. Afterwards, guests waved ‘heart’ and ‘I love you’ hand signs over Zoom to us in Washington. An Orthodox Bishop, pointing to the golden cross on his chest, called the Oratorio ‘Music for Peace’.

Since the 2022 military invasion of Ukraine, unfathomable human suffering and destruction, the mood for war of a few keep spreading worldwide. By contrast, I decided that the newer compositions would affirm optimism, hope for peace and mutual respect, like the piano Rag ‘Brooklyn Two-Step’, expressing warmth like a ray of sun.

Some of these works are: - the Concerto for Alto Saxophone & Strings ‘Springtime in Chicago’; - the Spiritual Cantata ‘Tears of the Earth’ for voices and orchestra, inspired by moving Native American poetry about respect; - the piano concerto for the left hand ‘Between War and Peace’ contrasting brutality and gentleness. An innovative piano technique clashes with the expression of kindness in the opening movement, in the Cadenza ‘Shout for Peace!’ and in the ‘Bolero for Peace’.

In this context of instability alternating with hope, short pieces like the left-hand piano Toccata ‘Exultate’, the large variant ‘Resolve and Pride’ for both hands, and the Ragtime are nuggets of optimism. . *** 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