ELEGY FOR THE BAKR CHILDREN ON GAZA BEACH (2014)
in memoriam: Ismail Mahmoud Bakr, Ahed Atef Bakr, Zakariya Bakr, Mohammad Ramiz Bakr

This composition is an elegy for four boys, cousins aged 9, 10, and 11, who were targeted and killed by the Israeli military on July 16, 2014 while playing together on the beach in Gaza. This incident occurred in full sight of international observers and was covered by the media extensively at the time. It was one atrocity among the many meted out against the people of Palestine by the occupying Israeli military during "Operation Protective Edge", and before, and since.

I did not know these children. I composed this work over the following ten days and first performed it in Philadelphia on July 26, 2014. I wanted to bring awareness of this atrocity into the spaces where I work and engage the public. I wrote this elegy to Ismail, Ahed, Zakariya, and Mohammad to hold up their names and support the struggle of their families for self-determination. This composition is offered with humility and in both sorrow and anger.

The recording took place in January 2015 at the Neighborhood House in Philadelphia, with members of Prometheus Orchestra, a social justice oriented string ensemble headquartered at Church of the Advocate in North Philly.

Russell Kotcher - violin
Joseph Kaufmann - violin
Veronica Jurkiewicz - viola
Jennifer Boorum - viola
Eric Coyne - cello
Jerrell Jackson - bass
Keir Neuringer - saxophone, composition

audio/video recording: T.C. Owens
video of the reading here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBTIb9WTJDE
Prometheus Orchestra: http://www.prometheusorchestra.org

ELEGY FOR THE BAKR CHILDREN ON GAZA BEACH (2014)

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The improbable connection between “Kenny “G” (s.sax), “G” spot (pleasure zone), “G”odot (Beckett) inspired this piece. Composed in two movements, in which the first "G" is a resonance study, representing the cyclic form of Beckett’s play "Waiting for Godot" and it is the total negative of the 2nd movement G(odot's)spot; a cartoon-like magnification of Lucky’s monologue (the g spot of the play in my opinion). Both movements may be played separately.
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ELEGY FOR THE BAKR CHILDREN ON GAZA BEACH (2014)

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