THE WORK BEGINS-ZABUR

As you can see from the accompanying photo, we are excited to have copies of the piano vocal score of our new work, ZABUR, by composer Mohammed Fairouz. Though we only received the second half of the work a few days ago, we have already read through the entire thing. Wow! It is powerful…beautiful…haunting…compelling.

The basic story concerns David from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, who is seeking refuge in a bomb shelter along with a crowd of adults and children. As fighting rages outside and cries from the chorus (and children's choir) represent our collective plea for peace, David grapples with his response. Through evocative, devout texts (Psalm 2 and 102, sung in Arabic) the community of shelter-seekers expresses its collective anguish and hope for peace.

At one point in the second movement, the children lift their voices to ask “can we tell them we are hungry?” (We are delighted to have the Indianapolis Children's Choir join us for this project.)

I can't adequately express how fortunate I feel to be associated with an ensemble that gets to present new music such as ZABUR. Taking our commitment to new music seriously, we are eager to share this piece with our audiences in just two months.

Dr. Eric Stark
Artistic Director