Concert – Isabelle Demers – St. Mark’s Cathedral – Flentrop Organ

Isabelle Demers performs Works by Demessieux, Alkan, Laurin, and the world premiere performance of Sharon Willis’s “Ascension Suite” for solo organ.

“Ascension Suite” begins with a tribute to three Civil Rights figures: Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, Dr. C. T. Vivian, and Congressman John Lewis, who all died in the year 2020. These three “sons” became agitators for American justice and equality. Another movement takes the form of an elegy lifting up the lives of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, whose tragic deaths in 2020 sparked an outpouring of protests throughout the country. The poignant music for this elegy is based on the traditional African American Spiritual, “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.”