The Immigrant Experience Cantata

02/16/2019

Sunday, March 24th@ 4:00pm, at St. Mary's Parish Family of Wi******er 158 Washington Street, Wi******er: The Immigrant Experience is being performed by an interfaith choir comprised of many of Wi******er’s faith communities. This is a benefit concert to support International Institute of New England, an organization that has been supporting refugees and immigrants for the last 100 years.

02/13/2019

Back in April 2018, a performance of The Immigrant Experience raised money for Episcopal City Mission. See below for the latest news from them:

The Immigration Justice Bond Fund, a partnership between ECM and San Lucas, Chelsea, Chelsea Collaborative, St. Stephen's, Lynn, and Essex County Community Organization (ECCO) has bonded out five people who have been unjustly detained. Episcopalians have accompanied these neighbors through the process of posting bond, re-uniting with family and community, and receiving legal advice on the path to permanent residency. In one case, Episcopalians bonded out a neighbor in New Orleans and hosted him until he could fly home to Lynn, MA.

We are grateful for the support from individuals and the following parishes: the Rev. Marya deCarlen and All Saints, North Shore; the Rev. Deborah Warner and Church of the Messiah, Woods Hole; the Rev. Scott Ciosek and the parishes of St. Peter's, Dartmouth and St. Martin's, New Bedford; and the Rev. Nathan Ives and St. Peter's Salem for their generous parish contributions to the Fund. We are also grateful to the Very Rev. Amy McCreath, Dean of Cathedral Church of St. Paul, and the Rev. Michael Kinman, Rector of All Saints Pasadena in the Diocese of Los Angeles, for a friendly World Series wager resulting in contributions for the bond fund.

For more information about how to be involved in accompaniment of individuals in this challenging time for our immigrant neighbors and siblings contact [email protected] or go to https://www.episcopalcitymission.org/how-to-donate/ for more information about donating to the fund.

Episcopal City Mission is a faith-based ministry which promotes social and economic justice working through partnerships with congregations, community-based organizations and people within the Diocese of Massachusetts with special emphasis on the urban poor and oppressed.

02/01/2019

Good luck to the musicians of First Parish in Concord, Unitarian Universalist tomorrow, as they present The Immigrant Experience!

01/15/2019

John Kramer's Immigrant Experience cantata will be offered during worship on Sunday, February 3, 2019 at 10:00 am. The service is being led by the First Parish in Concord, Unitarian Universalist Music ministry and the Immigration Justice Task Force. Performed by the First Parish Choir and conducted by Elizabeth Henderson Norton, Director of Music Ministry

12/09/2018

Congratulations to the First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton choir for their excellent and heart-filled performance of John Kramer's Immigrant Experience. Donations for NBARC (https://www.nb-arc.com) are still coming in!

11/25/2018

The next Immigrant Experience performance will benefit the Newton-Brookline Asylum Resettlement Committee https://www.nb-arc.com/. Join us on December 9 at First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton

11/19/2018

Congratulations to John Kramer and the cast of thousands on a great performance tonight, in support of BIJAN. The members of First Parish in Concord, Unitarian Universalist were amazing hosts - it was a wonderful time for all.

11/18/2018

Rehearsal for tonight’s performance!

11/07/2018

Notes from John Kramer:
I was inspired to write this work by the words of George Washington found in the second movement baritone solo. “The Bosom of America is open to receive...” I was motivated to write this work by the anti-immigrant rhetoric that seems to be on the rise. I do believe in the United States as a place of freedom and opportunity for all, and a country that has benefited tremendously from all immigrants.

While the overall concept is one of welcome and openness to the immigrant, the work speaks to a number of important themes. Movement four, The Immigrant Struggle, speaks to the difficulties incurred by the Irish in their migration during the potato famine and also the Chinese, whose immigration was restricted by the 1892 Chinese exclusion act.

The story of movement is another central theme to the immigrant experience. All immigrant families travel, some in comfort, and some under duress. Reading many stories of migration from south of our border, especially Honduras and Guatemala inspired me to write the fifth movement Journey from the South. This movement attempts to tell of the heroic efforts many immigrants make to reach this country; it also stands, in a way, for all immigrant journeys.

So many of us in this country are immigrants, but not all; certainly we have to contend with the fact that native populations were displaced make room for the new arrivals. And, not all immigrants came here by their own free will. The sixth movement is a kind of requiem that deals with the overwhelming sadness I feel when deeply contemplating the enormity of this situation. Sometimes, all we can do is, “remember and cry.”

The story of immigration is the story of this country, and a story of the freedoms, freedom of opportunity, freedom from oppression, and freedom of religion, that we enjoy. The Immigrant Experience is the telling of that story, yours and mine, through music.

11/01/2018

Kirsten Hart, the stellar soprano soloist for our performance on November 18. In addition to soloing in The Immigrant Experience, Kirsten will sing two songs from Henry Mollicone's Sueños de Esperanza - not to be missed!

10/18/2018

The next Immigrant Experience performance - November 18, 7pm at First Parish in Concord, Unitarian Universalist. John Kramer will conduct a cast of thousands, in a benefit performance for Boston Immigration Justice Accompaniment Network,https://beyondbondboston.org

09/01/2018

IE had a well-received performance on August 4 at Gables Fest at The House of the Seven Gables. “This timely piece reflects the issues surrounding immigration, and features texts by the Founding Fathers and others that established the United States as a welcoming place — a place, in the words of George Washington, “open to receive not only the opulent and respectable stranger but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions.” John Kramer's cantata is composed in seven movements for choir, soloists, violin, clarinet, cello, and piano. Look for more performances this fall!

Photo by Creative Collective LLC