The concert also featured the U.K. premiere of “The Singer of Wind and Rain—Five Songs on Palestinian Poems” set by Gregory Youtz, professor at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. Traditional Palestinian dance by the Al-Hurriyya Dabke group and Israeli, Palestinian, and Yemenite songs woven into jazz compositions by Israeli Tsivi Sharett and the TS Ensemble rounded out the evening. Conducted by Peter Crockford, the classical selections were performed by soprano Deborah Fink, pianist Dominic Saunders, the chorale ensemble Coro Cervantes, and the London Percussion Ensemble.
At the concert website, one listener wrote, “From the opening whispered lament of The Singer of Wind and Rain, through the excitingly different jazz fusion… the joyous exuberance of the Al Hurriyya Dance Group, to the atmospheric The Skies are Weeping cantata, we joined emotionally with singers and dancers from different cultures and backgrounds, in harmony and peace.” Munger described “The Skies Are Weeping” as “perhaps my most important composition.” An award-winning composer, his music has been performed at the Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Julliard Institute, National Gallery, National Cathredral, and other prominent venues.
The Rachel Corrie Foundation was proud to lend support to this brave undertaking and to those whose work on this project conveyed that censorship of the kind directed at Philip Munger and his Alaskan performers cannot stand.
The concert was further funded with grants from the Arts Council of England and the Holst Foundation. Patrons and supporters included professor Noam Chomsky, actress Julie Christie, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Moris Farhi MBE, Dr Jane Manning OBE, Miriam Margolyes OBE, Dr Ilan Pappe, John Pilger, playwright Harold Pinter CH, former Palestinian General Delegate to the UK Afif Safieh, Clare Short MP, The Corrie Family, Jocelyn Hurndall, Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Jewish Socialists’ Group, Just Peace UK, International Solidarity Movement, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and the Council for Arab-British Understanding.