- Oratorio ‘Requiem for the Fallen’ -

- Concerto for piano and concert band ‘Destination west’ -

- Cantata ‘The Bells of Hope’ -

- Left Hand Piano Concerto ‘Between War and Peace’ -

The search for Peace is the link between these instrumental works.

The first Piano Concerto ‘Imagine New York’ evoked Freedom and the Statue of Liberty an opened a concert for peace in 2021. This composition followed the 2018 Concerto for Piano and Band ‘Destination West - Promontory Point 1869’, a work symbolizing the laborious unification of America by the transcontinental railroad.

Decades before composing these works, as a Belgian teenager, I rode my bike through the crosses of Flanders’ cemeteries after reading the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ written during WWI. Much later, with these early memories in mind - also evoking the painful travails of civilization in Europe - I composed the Oratorio ‘Requiem for the Fallen’ on this poem and as a tribute to the countless victims of WWI and WWII.

The Oratorio for soprano, choir and orchestra was first played in 2018 in a small French town for the Centennial of WWI. Most of the youth orchestra players had a relative who fought in that war. The Concerto for Piano and Band also premiered in the same town.

The following year, the expanded version of the Oratorio premiered at Carnegie Hall, New York, 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, a large 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; and a Bishop, pointing to the golden cross on his chest, called the Oratorio ‘Music for Peace’.

The military invasion of Ukraine ten weeks later and the tragic world events of the coming years led me to compose works of hope, like the joyful Concerto for alto saxophone and strings ‘Springtime in Chicago’, the Cantata ‘The Bells of Hope’ for soprano, choir and orchestra, based on poems by Native Americans on the theme of respect, or the powerful second Piano Concerto ‘Between War and Peace’ for percussive and melodic left hand piano and small orchestra, that concludes on a soaring dance, the ‘Bolero 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