The Peacemakers

Date and Time to be announced

Sanford Performing Arts Center, 100 Alumni Boulevard, Sanford, Maine

Seaglass Chorale is thrilled to present The Peacemakers, a majestic choral work by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins, featuring texts from those who have advocated for peace throughout history. The Peacemakers has been called beautiful, haunting, ethereal, searching, uplifting, and earthy. Jenkins dedicated his work "to the memory of all those who lost their lives during armed conflict and, in particular, innocent civilians."

Accompanied by a small orchestra, Seaglass Chorale will be singing the words of Jesus ("Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God"), Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Dalai Lama, Albert Schweitzer, Mother Teresa, St. Francis of Assisi, Sir Thomas Mallory, Percy Bysse Shelley (from "Elegy on the Death of John Keats"), and Anne Frank, along with passages from the Bible, Qu'ran and Bahá'u'lláh (founder of the Bahá'í faith). One of the most moving numbers is "A Meditation: Peace is…," humbly and tenderly rendered by a solo soprano, singing text written by Terry Waite especially for The Peacemakers and imbued with his belief in peace as a healing, reconciling force. Waite is the former special envoy to the Bishop of Canterbury who, while on a mission to negotiate the release of four British hostages, was captured by Beirut terrorists on January 20, 1987 and held hostage for 1,763 days (the first four years in solitary confinement) before being released in 1991.

Jenkins himself contributed exactly one line of his own, "No more war," sung plaintively by the Youth Chorus at the start of "One Song," and his wife and musical collaborator Carol Barratt crafted the stirring, idealistic lyrics for the heraldic closing movement, "Anthem: Peace, Triumphant Peace." ("May all our paths meet up and lead to one holy place where peace shall reign in our hearts, one wondrous place when the world has peace, glorious peace, such peace.") It includes, as sung softly by the Youth Chorus, this sentiment from Anne Frank: "How wonderful it is that no one need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."

Click here for a video with excerpts from The Peacemakers by Karl Jenkins.

In his liner notes accompanying The Peacemakers CD, Jenkins writes: "I have occasionally placed some text in a musical environment that helps identify its origin or culture: the bansuri (Indian flute) and tabla in the Gandhi; the shakuhachi (a Japanese flute associated with Zen Buddhism) and temple bells in that of the Dalai Lama; African percussion in the Mandela; and echoes of the blues of the deep American South (as well as a quote from Schumann's Träumerei in my tribute to Martin Luther King. 'Healing Light: a Celtic prayer' is with uilleann pipes and bodhrán drums."

The singers of Seaglass Chorale look forward to sharing The Peacemakers with you as soon as conditions allow. In the meantime, we wish you all good health and safety.

Ticket Information

Thank you for your interest! Ticket information will be available as soon as we're able to reschedule the performance.