Published: May 2010

Two days before assistant professor of music Ralf Gawlick’s cantata Kinderkreuzzug (Children’s Crusade) had its premiere on Saturday April 10 in St. Ignatius Church, the performers met for their first rehearsal as a group. Some came farther than others—notably the Boy Choir of the Choral Academy of Dortmund, Germany (Jost Salm, conductor). Also singing were Boston’s Youth Pro Musica (Robert Barney, conductor) and the Treble Chorus of New England, whose conductor, Valerie J. Becker, directed the premiere.

Kinderkreuzzug is based on an antiwar poem by German writer Bertolt Brecht and recounts the odyssey of 50 Polish orphans who leave their homeland at the onset of war in search of sanctuary. A recording of the cantata is due on the Musica Omnia label in fall 2010.

@BC presents an audio slideshow from the rehearsal held April 8, 2010, at St. Ignatius Church.

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This feature was posted on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 and is filed under Audio Slideshows.

Performances of Kinderkreuzzug were sponsored and supported by the College of Arts and Sciences, the Institute for the Liberal Arts, the Arts and Social Responsibility Project, and the Jesuit Institute at Boston College; and also by the Goethe Institutes of Boston and Munich, the German Consulate of Boston, the Newton Cultural Council, and the Dalcroze Center for Music and Movement.

Executive Producer: Ravi Jain, Producer: Miles Benson, Audio: Miles Benson and Ravi Jain, Photographer: Justin Knight