~ By Celeste DeMonte, publicity, Fresno Community Chorus
The Fresno Community Chorus Master Chorale, directed by Fresno State professor emeritus Dr. Anna Hamre, will perform “Remembrance and Healing: Executive Order 9066 and the incarceration of ethnic Japanese in America.” The fall concert will take place at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19, in the Paul Shaghoian Concert Hall.
The Hon. Dale Ikeda will present a pre-concert lecture. The concert will include performances by Fresno Gumyo Taiko drummers and Central Valley Japanese School.
Fresno Master Chorale and professional orchestra perform Dan Forrest’s “Requiem for the Living” and Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.”
Fresno Master Chorale’s stated goal for this concert is to remember a significant historical event that affected members of our own citizenry 75 years ago: Central Valley neighbors, friends, and family of Japanese descent were among those forced from their homes and incarcerated in camps. Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt caused 120,000 men, women, and children to be locked up for the duration of World War II.
Composer Dan Forrest says of his “Requiem for the Living”: “The first movement pours out the grief of the Requiem and Kyrie prayers, facing grief head-on and grappling with the sorrow that is common to all human existence. The second movement bitterly portrays the problem of pain that we all wrestle with, and which causes a crisis of faith for many people … My setting of the Sanctus text is literally a depiction of God’s wondrous glory [and] [T]he final movement is simply an arrival at rest and peace.”
“Ode to Joy,” the final movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony” and this concert’s finale, uses words of poet Friedrich Schiller in a powerful anthem celebrating our humanity. Used in many countries including Chile, Japan, Germany, and China at various turning points of history, “Ode to Joy” is the adopted anthem of the European Union and African Union, among others.
Soloist for the concert are Maria Briggs, Katherine Sanford, Aaron Burdick, Lim Forgey and Ryan Anton. Cellist Dieter Wulfhorst is featured in a special solo performance.
The Paul Shaghoian Concert Hall is located on the Clovis North High School campus, 2770 E. International Ave., in Fresno.
All tickets are $25.
Tickets can be purchased online at the FCCMC website (a small service fee applies), or by calling 559.709.6245, or emailing fresnocommunitychorus@gmail.com. Unclaimed tickets at Will Call will be released 10 minutes before concert time.
The College of Arts and Humanities at Fresno State 