Join Ars Gratia Populi and the Westmoreland Festival Chorus for the stirring Lenten program A New Jerusalem: Visions of the Afterlife; Friday, March 28th at 7:30pm at Westmoreland UCC in Bethesda. The concert is free to all, made possible by Music @ Westmoreland, which you are invited to support with donations.
Westmoreland is please to present Ars Gratia Populi (Latin for "art for the people's sake"), a vocal ensemble founded in 2023 by All-Ireland champion singer Kevin Elam to explore the interplay between art music and folk music in an acapella setting. The group's name, which is a play on the well-known maxim ars gratia artis ("art for art's sake"), represents their view that art derives its meaning not from itself, but from the positive reaction it can create in the human mind and soul. This program explores the differing human reactions to death and the afterlife, and the wide spectrum of harmonic colors that these themes have inspired. Works by Morley, Purcell, Victoria, Richafort and others are complimented by rousing early American hymns in the shape-note tradition, and the stirring Agnus Dei for double-choir by Frank Martin. Learn more / listen to a sneak peak here
“This event will be a balm for your spirit this Lent, whether or not you practice it. The deeply moving works which span 600 years of music take us out of our need for explicitness, and allow us to sit in the presence of what we simply know is true. We’re honored to be included in the program that AGP has assembled, and look forward to the opportunity to experience both darkness and light.” – Alec Davis, Westmoreland Director of Music
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