GNE continues its residency at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ with the second of four programs called The Four Freedoms Project, named after Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “Four Essential Freedoms,” articulated during his 1941 State of the Union address in support of our allies in Europe ahead of World War II.

Freedom to Worship is perhaps the most meditative program of our season. In this program we present various reactions to the meaning of “worship.” From Sofia Gubaidulina’s haunting reflection of silence in Silenzio to David Lang’s How to Pray, a more frantic work more indicative of its contemporary American milieu, each work in this program seeks to explore a sense of what contemplation and worship might mean for a contemporary culture. These find expression in the other two works on this program, Peri Mauer’s Afterwords, a simple and brief elegy for lost loved ones, and Armando Bayolo’s triptych Hymnodies for the Contemplation of Terrifying Mysteries, which seeks to create a meditative space in sound that envelops the audience, within the context of the challenging times in which it was written. Blair Skinner will be conducting this program.

Tickets are available through OvationTix : $30 General Admission presale, $24 WCUCC Members / Students/Seniors & Military at the door.