The Skies are Weeping Cantata

Website: weepingskies.blogspot.com
Photos: Hackney Empire – 1 November 2005

There was anticipation among the concert-goers who, weaving past protesters, gathered November 1st in London at The Hackney Empire, for “The Skies are Weeping, A Concert for Justice and Peace.” The concert included the worldwide premiere of a controversial cantata “The Skies are Weeping.” Written for soprano, chamber choir, and percussion ensemble, the work by Alaskan Philip Munger was inspired by Rachel Corrie and written as an expression of the political climate surrounding her death. The second movement, “Dance for Tom Hurndall,” memorializes the slain U.K. activist and photographer whose parents joined the Corrie family in the audience. Munger, whose music often reflects his humanitarian, environmental, and social concerns, had planned for the work’s premiere at the University of Anchorage in 2004, but was met with intense opposition from some in his own community. The Alaskan performance was cancelled after he and students received e-mail threats that raised concerns for their safety. Though Munger sought other U.S. venues for the premiere of his work, it was a young Londoner, Deborah Fink, a soprano and activist with Jews for Justice for Palestine, who took up the challenge.

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.