This year’s Spring Oratorio addressed a topic that, while foreign to students living on North Park’s peaceful campus, can’t be ignored by many Chicago residents: gun violence.
Tom Zelle, Professor of Music was the visionary behind the biennial Oratorio, or an extended musical composition, usually with a religious theme and featuring soloists, choruses, and an orchestra (think: Handel’s Messiah).
“When looking at gun violence, the core factors are fear and separation, greed and social injustice, at a very basic level,” said Zelle, who also coordinates the Certificate in Music for Social Change and Human Values program. “We are responding to that, to bringing people together who might not normally come together.”
And so, while the Oratorio generally is held off-campus, but still somewhat nearby, this year, Zelle felt it was important to hold the event in the heart of the city. He ended up choosing Oakdale Covenant Church on Chicago’s South Side. Before the event’s 7 p.m. start time, audience members, who were encouraged to dress in all white, walked through the community together.
Hannibal Lokumbe, Composer-in-Residence of the Philadelphia Orchestra, became a pivotal addition to the Oratorio, which included 150 North Park students performing a Mozart requiem. Lokumbe’s composition, a reflection on the hate-motivated killing of nine African-American church members in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015, brought additional complexity and richness to the program.
“Usually we would not be able to get an artist of this caliber,” Zelle said of Lokumbe. “I asked Hannibal if he could tailor a piece to the oratorio, and he was very supportive from the very beginning.”
The program also featured performances by choirs from The Chicago Police Department, Oakdale, and Trinity United Church of Christ.