“Two Sermons” Premieres at Purdue University Fort Wayne
A New Work for Symphonic Band and Choir
Photo courtesy PFW Visual and Performing Arts
On October 10th, 2024, Purdue University Fort Wayne’s School of Music premiered Bruce Broughton’s powerful and exciting new work, “Two Sermons,” inspired by two poems by American writer and civil rights activist, James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871–June 26, 1938).
The Creation and The Final Judgment are the first and final poems in Weldon’s 1927 book, “God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse,” whose text Broughton’s music follows like action in a movie, with Purdue’s Symphonic Winds and massed choirs (150 voices, consisting of the University Singers, Choral Union, Fort Wayne Children’s Choir) delivering an exciting and moving performance under the direction of conductor Daniel Tembras.