This program celebrates Jews’ and Christians’ spring festivals of redemption and new life. In particular, it honors the rôle of women. Through our music, we have walked in the steps of Miriam, Moses’s sister, who led the Hebrew women in a song of triumph after the crossing of the Red Sea, and with the women who kept watch at Jesus’ crucifixion, and who, three days later, were the first to see his empty tomb.
Because the religious observance of Holy Week and Easter is based large in church ritual, its music is formal and liturgical. Passover, however, is uniquely observed in the home-based Seder meal, and so its characteristic music is more informal — ancient and new folk tunes, and, in America, the spiritual “Go down, Moses.” Performed on Sunday, May 23, 1999.