On May 5, the Oratorio Society of New York, under Maestro Kent Tritle, will give the world premiere of Paul Moravec’s and Mark Campbell’s ALL SHALL RISE at Carnegie Hall. ALL SHALL RISE concludes their American Voices trilogy of choral works—this one about the history of voting rights in the US.
The earlier segments of the multipart musical work, SANCTUARY ROAD, about the Underground Railroad, and A NATION OF OTHERS, about Ellis Island and the immigrant experience are the others, were also commissioned by the Oratorio Society of New York and have received multiple performances across the country both as oratorios and later on as fully staged operas.
Highlighted in a recent feature on Broadwayworld.com, Maestro Kent Tritle says, “I think what’s wonderful about these pieces, besides their inherent beauty, is that they bring a new perspective to a form that’s been around for hundreds of years, including notable works by Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn, among many others… During my decades with OSNY, I’ve worked to integrate the music of contemporary composers alongside the traditional pieces we perform.”
Tritle continues, “the significance of ALL SHALL RISE being about voting rights is important because of what it means about belonging to society: Am I a full-fledged member of society or am I excluded? It’s something that is universal. I think it’s brilliant on the part of Paul and Mark that they didn’t do another time-specific moment. SANCTUARY ROAD was about the Civil War and A NATION OF OTHERS took place in 1921 with the influx of immigrants. ALL SHALL RISE could have been set in 1960 in Mississippi. But by the breadth of it—stretching from Revolutionary America to the election of Barack Obama in 2008—I think it acknowledges what we’re really trying to do with the trilogy: Tell the stories of unsung American heroes.”
