Fred Onovwerosuoke: “Meditation for Darfur” is 'a prayer for world peace'

Meditation for Darfur will receive its New York premiere on Jan. 26, 2008 at
8 p.m., in the Merkin Concert Hall with Lori-Kaye Miller, mezzo-soprano, and Ensemble du Monde under the direction of Marlon Daniel, conductor. Fred Onovwerosuoke provides a synopsis of his composition:

Meditation for Darfur is a programmatic musical narrative to reflect upon humanity's pain, avarice and apathy. Performed as a multimedia presentation, it features an obbligato mezzo-soprano, a slide show and the poetry of the revered Californian Rabbi, Dr. Harold Schulweis. Fortuitously, Rabbi Schulweis's poem, Darfur Meditation was penned December 2006, about the same period when this work was completed. We didn't know each other or of the other's work until afterwards! A performance of this work is thus preceded by the reading of Rabbi Schulweis's definitive poem, and accompanied by a slide presentation of documentary photos, courtesy of the Human Rights Watch organization. Conceived as a dirge or lament, it draws from various sacred musical traditions such as the Fon voudou incantations of Benin and the wailing chants of the Furis of Sudan. The obbligato part for mezzo soprano, supported by the haunting strains of the violas, employs the Al Fatiha, the ultimate prayer of all Muslims, to call upon humanity for pause, meditation and self reevaluation. Meditation for Darfur is a prayer for world peace.

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