Name: Figure humaine
Start: 2025-02-13T18:30:00-05:00
End: 2025-02-13T19:30:00-05:00
Location: St. Paul's Chapel

Works born of oppression and resistance illuminate the enduring strength of the human spirit.
About this Event

Experience music that remembers the past while inspiring a more just and compassionate future. In a program rich with history, Trinity Choir, led by director Melissa Attebury, presents a stirring collection of works created in the crucible of World War II. Showcasing the power of music to confront tyranny, honor voices of courage, and transform our darkest hours, the concert culminates in Francis Poulenc’s choral masterpiece, Figure humaine. Composed in secret during the Nazi occupation of France and set to text by poet Paul Éluard, this hymn to freedom moves from introspective grief to defiant triumph, ending with a resounding final declaration: “Liberté.”

Other works include Benjamin Britten’s Advance Democracy, an urgent call to resist fascism, written on the eve of war; the haunting Wiegala by Ilse Weber, a heartbreaking lullaby composed and sung in the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Weber and her son perished together; and Abendgebet, a meditative prayer by contemporary composer Jacob Beranek, based on text written by German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer while he was awaiting execution for attempting to assassinate Adolf Hitler.