Saturday, September 4, 2010

Saturday special: Joyful Noise in Staunton

Martha Note: Roger Bowen has worked closely with the Episcopal schools in Haiti for 30 years, pairing American schools with them and fostering relationships between the cultures. He sent me the following alert about a 7 p.m. Monday, September 13th concert in Staunton that I thought you might like to know about. Tickets are available at Stone Soup Books. Click here to watch a short video. Password is "trinity."

Les Petits Chanteurs
A Haitian Kreyol prayer says: 

Senye, Si n'ap viv jodia malgre siklon, grangou, e maladi, nou dwe di, "Mesi, Jezi. Nou genle' la pou yon bi."

Lord, if we are alive today despite hurricanes, hunger and sickness, we ought to say "Thank you, Jesus." We are apparently here for a purpose. 

Not this Monday night but the next, a little choir - Les Petits Chanteurs - should draw a huge audience into the seven hundred-seat Trinity Episcopal Church in Staunton. They are just thirty voices - boys and young men, ages 8 - 18. Nine adult musicians - their teachers - will accompany them.

So, why the crowded church?

It's because an earthquake changed these kids’ world. 250,000 deaths. That’s like ten Staunton populations - gone. A million displaced. It’s because these kids will travel to us from Haiti, the nation with the last name: “poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.”  It’s because we know something of their story. Their homes and music school and cathedral and city are destroyed, but their spirit remains.  I’m attending the concert because I want to share in that spirit, maybe even have some of it rub off on me.

They are apparently here for a purpose.

I’m guessing standing room only.
                                                       -- Roger Bowen

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