In Flanders Fields program transcript.pdf

In Flanders Fields: Songs from the Great War to Commemorate the Centennial of the Armistice

In partnership with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, this program is a part of a larger series of events that explore themes of peace and reflection with timeless works from the classical repertoire. These programs were presented with leadership support from Colonel (IL) Jennifer N. Pritzker, IL ARNG (Retired), president and founder, Pritzker Military Foundation and the President and CEO of TAWANI Enterprises, Inc.

Before George Butterworth fought in The Great War, he wrote his Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad as an expression of his love for traditional English folksong. Ives’ powerful In Flanders Fields communicates the American composer’s sentiments about war, while composer and British army member Ivor Gurney’s Ludlow and Teme evokes the English town of his youth. Songs by some of America’s greatest Tin Pan Alley songwriters close out this afternoon of extraordinary musical storytelling.

WILLIAM BROOKS, Professor of Music, University of York, Presenter 

William Brooks has published extensively on American music, including the two overview chapters in The Cambridge History of American Music (1998). A composer and performer as well as a scholar, his work in all domains often concerns the interaction of vernacular and cultivated traditions. His work on WWI sheet music has been supported by fellowships from the AHRC (UK), the Lilly Library, the Newberry Library, and the Hampsong Foundation. With Christina Bashford and Gayle Magee, he is editing a collection of essays, Over Here, Over There: Transatlantic Conversations on the Music of World War I (University of Illinois Press); and with Bashford, Magee, and performers Laurie Matheson, Justin Vickers, and Geoffrey Duce, he has given lectures on wartime songs throughout the Midwest, in England, and at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. 

MARIO ROJAS, Tenor

CHRISTOPHER KENNEY, Baritone

SHANNON McGINNIS, Piano