The Schiller Institute Chorus of Eastern Massachusetts held a breakthrough concert event on Nov. 22, featuring the chorus, soloists, poetry, and ideas of peace, on the 61st anniversary of JFK’s assassination.
Jen Pearl opened the event with a powerful speech situating the current danger of nuclear war, and the need for insightful leadership from America. With a few quotes from Kennedy’s June 10, 1963 peace speech at American University in the height of the Cold War, the audience was able to witness the power of that quality of insightful leadership.
The chorus then presented the canon “Dona Nobis Pacem” and Felix Mendelssohn’s “How Lovely Are the Messengers.”
Bill Ferguson then rose to say a few words on Schiller, the current political climate, the role of the Schiller Institute, and the harmonious quality of insight required to shape history in such a dramatic world situation. He gave the audience a glimpse at the unifying characteristics of all the musical and poetical works they were about to hear, by very poetically discussing the themes of the yearning for freedom, the striving for a more meaningful life, and the quality of hope required to intervene in history. His focus on the Schillerian concept of the Beautiful Soul was accentuated by reciting the moving conclusion of Schiller’s “Hoffnung” in English. Very moving indeed, the audience was left with a powerfully punctuated: “...We are born for that which is better.”
