- 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 links these instrumental works.

‘Imagine New York’, the first Piano Concerto evoking Freedom and the Statue of Liberty, opened a concert for peace, in 2021. This work follows the Concerto for Piano and Band ‘Destination West - Promontory Point 1869’, where the imagery of the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad symbolizes the unification of America.

Decades before composing these works, as a Belgian teenager, I rode my bike through the crosses of Flanders’ cemeteries after having read the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ written during WWI. Later, with these memories in mind, I composed the Oratorio ‘Requiem for the Fallen’ on ‘In Flanders Fields’ as a tribute to the victims of wars, particularly of WWI and WWII, lived through by my parents.

The large Oratorio was first played in 2018 in a town in southwest France for the Centennial of WWI. Most of the youth orchestra players had a relative who had fought in that war. The Concerto for Piano and Band also premiered the same year in the same town.

A year later, the Oratorio premiered at Carnegie Hall, New York, with the Consul of Belgium in attendance. Additional performances took place in Moscow: In 2020, the U.S. Embassy underwrote a concert to commemorate the cooperation in WWII. In 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 and an Orthodox Bishop, pointing to the golden cross on his chest, called the Oratorio ‘Music for Peace’.

World events have since led me to compose works of hope. Among these: the joyful Concerto for Alto Saxophone & 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; and the second Piano Concerto ‘Between War and Peace’ for percussive and melodic left hand and small orchestra. A popular dance, the ‘Bolero for Peace’, concludes this single hand concerto. . *** 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