Here's some oxygen for your week: A team of Pulitzer Prize winners, including librettist Mark Campbell and Yaddo composer Paul Moravec produced this virtuosic performance of “Light Shall Lift Us."
The soaring rendition has gone viral, with more than a million views across several sites in only a few days, inspiring strength, hope, joy, solace, and reminding us all why we turn to artists, especially during times of crisis.
With talent to burn, many artists who work in the gig economy have been especially hard-hit in the economic implosion of the global pandemic. This world premiere video, developed by Opera America, gathers some 107 opera singers and issues a galvanizing rally for the opera community and the arts in general while calling on each of us to support the artists and organizations whose work enriches our lives.
“In this pandemic, everything has changed and yet nothing has changed," Moravec said. "These eminent artists are still just as crucial as they were when this ordeal began, and they will be even more essential when we emerge together on the other side.”
Ditto!
Opera companies, individual artists and arts organizations need guardian angels to sustain our "cathedral for art" (to quote another Yaddo composer, Kala Pierson). Dig out those wings and join us in supporting an artist in any way that is within your means.
