Wesley festival at Lincoln Center to benefit UMCOR
 |
|
The 2007 Wesley Choral Festival will be held at the Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall in New York. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
|
By Linda Bloom*
Jan. 18, 2007 | NEW YORK (UMNS)
A United Methodist-related concert at New York's Lincoln Center will
honor hymn-writer Charles Wesley as it raises funds for relief work.
The 2007 Wesley Choral Festival, presented by Music Celebrations
International, commemorates the 300th anniversary of Wesley's birth.
Events begin with a Feb. 15 gala dinner in Little Italy and culminate
with a concert at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall at 7:30 p.m. on
Feb. 18.
The idea for the festival originated with James Ramsey, the director
of worship and arts at St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Highlands
Ranch, Colo.
 |
|
James Ramsey
|
Ramsey considers Wesley to be "the largest hymn writer known to mankind"
who also had a significant impact on the denomination his brother
founded. "From a historical perspective, without the hymns and without
the rich history of hymn singing, the musical context of The United
Methodist Church would be vastly different," he added.
Wesley, who was born in December 1707, is said to have written at least
9,500 hymns, and may have produced three hymns a week for 57 years. The
familiar tunes include "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus," "Love Divine,
All Loves Excelling," "Oh, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing," and "Hark!
The Herald Angels Sing."
As those hymns demonstrate, Wesley is an important musical icon for
Christianity as well. "Wesley had some great inspiration and great prose
and great verse," he said.
But Ramsey's goal is to do more than acknowledge Wesley's inspiration
and influence. "Over the course of the last five years, we (at St.
Luke's) have raised $75,000 for mission," he explained. "It provides a
passion and a purpose for making music for a cause. It transforms the
experience for the performer, in my opinion."
In this case, 100 percent of the proceeds of the Charles Wesley
tercentenary concert will benefit the United Methodist Committee on
Relief, which will designate the funds to landmine removal in Angola.
Singers and leaders
Concert participants include an estimated 275 singers — including
choirs representing churches across the denomination’s five
jurisdictions and Tennessee Wesleyan College in Athens, Tenn. — and the
New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, a community orchestra in New York.
United Methodist Bishop Warner Brown of Denver is among those expected
to attend the concert.
Besides Ramsey, directors of the Wesley event are Eph Ehly, professor
emeritus at the Conservatory of Music, University of Missouri-Kansas
City, and Timothy Koch, director of music at First United Methodist
Church, Myrtle Beach, S.C.
The first half of the concert, to be led by Ramsey and Koch, will
include familiar sacred music. "My point was to stretch the 300 years
with great music that people would recognize," Ramsey said.
Carlton Young, editor of The United Methodist Hymnal, also has
edited an anti-war hymn taken from Wesley's first hymnal, which will be
used for congregational singing and mass choir and orchestra.
The concert's second half will feature the world premiere of "Directions
for Singing," by Andrew Fowler, a composer from South Carolina. The
work, which celebrates the life and writings of Charles Wesley, takes
its title from the series of seven instructions written by Charles and
included in John Wesley's Select Hymns, 1761.
"Directions for Singing," directed by Ehly, is a 40- to 45-minute piece
with soloists and full orchestra. Fowler will be at the piano. The Rev.
David Money, associate pastor at St. Luke's, will serve as narrator,
portraying John Wesley.
Ehly is a guest conductor at Carnegie Hall in New York several times
each year. He also has conducted more than 80 all-state choirs and 500
festival ensembles. As a lecturer, clinician and conductor, he has
appeared in 48 states, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Mexico and several
European countries and made presentations on more than 100 college and
university campuses.
The landmines crisis
 |
|
Jacky D'Almenda (center), director of
the Accelerated Demining Program, describes the process used to clear landmines near Vilankulo, Mozambique.
A UMNS file photo by Mike DuBose.
|
All of the proceeds from the $35 to $55 ticket sales will go to UMCOR's
landmine removal program in Angola. The agency is using lessons learned
from its de-mining work in Mozambique to help the Angolan government
train its own de-mining teams. UMCOR is also teaching mine awareness to
prevent further fatalities from these hidden explosives.
The work involves local communities as well. When de-mining
activities begin in an area, people immediately start preparing for
their return, making the bricks that will be their homes and schools and
setting up tents at the edge of the site.
The Rev. Janet Forbes, St. Luke's senior pastor, was made aware of
the landmine crisis in Angola when she visited there as a member of the
denomination's General Council on Ministries in the late 1990s.
Meeting with members and clergy of six United Methodist congregations
at an Angolan refugee camp, she heard the story of how an elder chief,
their "angel," had led the group some 400 miles from their villages to
the camp without losing anyone to landmines. "They were celebrating that
God had led them, like Moses," she recalled.
Forbes, who is singing in the Lincoln Center concert, is pleased it
will benefit the UMCOR work in Angola. "It's, for me, a very important
project for us to be involved in," she said. "They'll never have their
country back until the landmines are cleared."
To order tickets, visit the Lincoln Center online or call Center Charge at (212) 721-6500 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Related articles
Perkins marks Charles Wesley 300th
International delegates say landmines put life on hold
United Methodists focus on landmine removal
Resources
Lincoln Center tickets
UMCOR landmine removal
Charles Wesley 300th worship resources
St. Luke's Church
Wesley Music Resources |
Translate
Korean News
