"Voices of Faith" in Vatican: Eric Whitacre and Hila Plitmann, finding faith in music
(Vatican Radio) The internationally acclaimed contemporary composer and conductor
Eric Whitacre, known for his choral and wind ensemble compositions, says music “makes
for a more compassionate, gentler society.” Whitacre, who was invited to open the
Women’s Day event “Voices of Faith” March 8th in the Vatican cinema might
have seemed an odd choice for the day.
One of only two men to take the stage
during the five hour story-telling event about the inspiring work and spirituality
of women in the Church, Whitacre confesses his is an untraditional form of faith.
He admits he was not raised a Christian and considers himself more of an agnostic.
But for Whitacre, composing music is something like a religious experience: “I think
what I still take from it is my childhood in Nevada – these vast, open skies and a
sense of horizon that never ends… But daily, I feel a sense of wonder and awe that
I think very religious and very faithful people also feel.”
This sense of wonder
that Whitacre experiences transpires in works performed by his Virtual Choir which
brings together thousands of individual voices from around the globe into an online
choir. At the Vatican cinema, Whitacre spoke of several of his compositions, such
as Sleep and Lux Aurumque which topped more than four million online hits, and said
it was a surprise and “a huge honor” to be invited to participate in “Voices of Faith.”
The event was hosted by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and sponsored
by the Fidel Gotz Foundation, a Catholic philanthropic organization.
Giving
a nod to International Women’s Day, Whitacre expresses gratitude for the contributions
women have made to his life, “throughout my life women have made me everything that
I am, beginning with my mother and my beautiful wife…my favorite teacher in the world…
I’ve just been continually shaped and polished and softened by the women in my life
and I am eternally grateful for that.”
Whitacre’s wife, Grammy award winning
operatic soprano Hila Plitmann, performed a solo at the Vatican event. An Israeli
coming from what she describes as a “liberal” family, Plitmann speaks of the Vatican
initiative as part of a generalized pattern of “openness to the other” that she sees
around the world:
Listen to Tracey McClure's conversation with Eric Whitacre
and Hila Plitmann: (a
video link to Sleep and Lux Aurumque can be found below)
“I feel nowadays
that the world is really embracing its variety and its openness to acceptance and
allowance of differences. And I feel that that is happening here too and I am really
grateful that that seems to be the mood and that that’s what we’re giving to our children,”
Plitmann says.
Whitacre looks at his own Virtual Choir as just one of means
of dialogue between people of different cultures and faiths, and even between people
whose countries are at war…
“In the Virtual Choir not only have we seen countries
that are in conflict submit videos – we’ve had singers from Iraq and Iran, we’ve had
singers from Jordan, Libya, Syria and Israel. We’ve had singers from African nations
– some of them that are at war with themselves even right now, as is Syria. But more
than that, we’ve seen online, these singers communicating with each other, sending
each other these heartfelt messages saying ‘I loved your voice’ or ‘thank you for
showing me this’ and then some have even become friends – which is extraordinary.
There’s something so innocent and so human, especially about singing together, that
I think it immediately becomes a ‘post-national’ exercise. Really, people are just
stripped of their nationality and are just human beings.”
Eric Whitacre talks
about his Virtual Choir and how he found his musical "Epiphany" in Mozart's Requiem
in this TED talk online: