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Otago Daily Times
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Packed audience treated to powerful work
The Southern Youth Choir and Chamber Orchestra are directed by John Buchanan in a performance of The Armed Man to a capacity audience at St Paul's Cathedral in Dunedin yesterday. PHOTO: GERARD O'BRIEN Southern Youth Choir The Armed Man St Paul's Cathedral Sunday, May 25 St Paul's Cathedral was a sellout yesterday afternoon for a performance by Southern Youth Choir (director John Buchanan) of The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. The Armed Man is an anti-war work composed in 2000 by Karl Jenkins, using liturgical Latin Mass text, prose and poetry from other religions, assembled by librettist Guy Wilson. The event began with the SYC Chamber Choir, conducted by Noah McBirney-Warner in Geistliches Leid (Brahms) and a beautiful setting of Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd (Rutter), with oboe obligato and counter-melodies (Callum Fotheringham) and organ (David Burchell). The Southern Youth Choir, currently with 60 members, organ and chamber orchestra (including three percussionists) then presented an absolutely outstanding 70-minute performance, full of dynamic contrast and emotion, expressing war, horror and loss, ending with a prayer for a peaceful future. As the final words faded to silence, the entire audience sprang to a standing ovation until the very last performer had left the stage. So deserved. Choir members taking solos were soprano Rosie Auchinvole, alto Tessa Campbell, tenor Teddy Finney Waters and bass Ewen Clarke-Wallace. The opening Mass simulated a marching army with drum beat, then a gradual orchestral build-up assembled the choir, singing 15th century text The Armed Man. Style and pace matched the beginning of war; Adhaan, a Muslim call to prayer, Kyrie, Sanctus, Hymn Before Action, with text by Rudyard Kipling ("Lord grant us strength to die"). The climax came with Charge — a long drawn-out chorus of screaming and wailing depicting the worst action of war, followed by silence and Last Post (Ralph Miller). So effective. An excerpt from the poem Angry Flames, about the horrors of Hiroshima, Torches, Agnus Dei, Benedictus and lines by Tennyson's Better is Peace completed the work. Text in the programme enabled full understanding of each section in this epic, never-to-be-forgotten performance. Review by Elizabeth Bouman
Otago Daily Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Youth choir hitting all the right notes
From standing ovations to high praise from critics, Dunedin's Southern Youth Choir is going from strength to strength. Rebecca Fox asks choir members and its director, John Buchanan, about its success. When members of the Southern Youth Choir begin to sing The Armed Man , many will be thinking of what their ancestors went through while serving in the armed forces. The "Mass for Peace" by Sir Karl Jenkins celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Originally commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum, it premiered at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on April 25, 2000, and was dedicated to the victims of the Kosovo crisis. Written for a choir with soloists and a symphonic orchestra, it is considered an anti-war piece, using the text of the Latin Mass and poetry and prose from around the world to tell the story of going to war and the horror and loss that results. It ends with a prayer for peace. It has been performed around the world more than 3000 times — including in New York on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The 3000th performance was conducted by Sir Karl, celebrating his 80th birthday, at the Royal Albert Hall last year. Southern Youth Choir director John Buchanan says they selected the work as it commemorates 80 years since the end of World War 2. "I think it's an appropriate work in these times to do." Having conducted the piece twice before, Buchanan is no stranger to the work, which he describes as very relatable for an audience. "He weaves poems to it, like one of the Rudyard Kipling ones about getting ready for war, going to war. Then we know that we could be going to die. It's quite a powerful poem. It was that Victorian thing about being brave and going off to die for your country. "And then it takes you to the actual battle. And then at the end there, there's this amazing part where the choir just makes this huge noise like the sounds of battle, the sounds of people dying, really horrific-sounding and then silence." It also includes "Benedictus" played on the cello, before finally concentrating on peace being better than war. "It ends up with a beautiful unaccompanied chorale, just about God shall wipe away your tears." Choir member Kate Koller, 20, a student from Christchurch, says it is also appropriate as it is coming up to the first Matariki since the last member of the 28th Maori Battalion (Sir Bom Gillies) died. "So it's coming up to the first chance to remember him and I guess the members of the Maori Battalion, so that's special." For the choir members it is also a chance to remember their own great and great-great grandparents' contributions to various wars around the world, as well as the impact on and ramifications for their families. Soprano and New Zealand Youth Choir member Rosie Auchinvole's great-grandfather on her father's side was a Royal Air Force squadron leader who was in a plane which crashed on the Isle of Mull during World War 2. Her family went to Mull in 2015 and visited a whisky shop, which turned out to be owned by the descendants of the people who saved her great-grandfather. "It was, like, middle of winter, high up on a mountain, he had to trek through the snow in the middle of the night [to save them]. It's just a crazy, weird story." Her grandfather Chris, who was in the armed forces in the United Kingdom, but now lives in Dunedin, sings in the RSA Choir and Auchinvole, who grew up in Dunedin, is an RSA choir scholar, so they sing together sometimes. "Which is really, really cute, so that's a nice connection to The Armed Man as well." The grandfather of fellow chorister George Warren was in the British Army for most of his working life and served a lot of time in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Holding his grandfather's medals, Warren, 25, of Kaiapoi, says his grandparents travelled to a lot of different postings over the years, and his late uncle was born in Germany while they were stationed there. "Performing this concert makes me think of Granddad in a way because, I mean, he's still with us and me and him used to attend all of the Anzac Day services together ever since I was a wee lad." That had only stopped this year as, after a car accident last year, his grandfather, who is 85, struggles to walk. Koller's great-grandfather was more like a grandfather to her, but died when she was 9. Before he died, the Royal Air Force navigator, who had been reluctant to talk about the war, spoke about his time in the Pacific. "He had some really cool stories ... [such as] one day the pilot dropped something so he bent over to pick it up right as a bullet went above his head. He had some close experiences. I think it really impacted him. My mum said her granddad was the same. He didn't talk about it at all. He survived everything he fought but he didn't talk about it ever." The worst family story for her was learning of her relatives in the mounted services having their horses killed before returning home. "I'm such a big animal lover and that has always got to me." Dunedin's Ewen Clarke-Wallace, 21, who is one of the longest-serving choir members, having joined at 15, will be remembering his great-grandfather, who died in Egypt at the beginning of World War 2. But other ancestors, two brothers from Lawrence, luckily returned from the war. Another was involved in the South African Light Horse Brigade in the Boer Wars. "It kind of just underscores the reasons why people went to war and why they actually did that. Because it's very easy to be like 'these silly people with their silly killing each other'. But they did that for a reason. And we are that reason. So it's important for me that there's, you know, both sides of that interaction." Buchanan says performing a full work like The Armed Man will be the biggest performance the choir has done in recent years. The choir will be performing the "reduced orchestration" option, so a cellist — choir member Portia Bell — flautist, three trumpets and a group of percussionists have been enlisted. Having conducted the piece before, he is impressed at how well the choir are singing it in rehearsal. "There's this wonderful youthful freshness that this choir's got. It's just wonderful." The choir was was established in 1992 by Maureen Smith and Anthony Ritchie for young singers aged 16-25, whether students or working. "It's open to all people but they're mainly university students, and it's had its ups and downs as far as numbers are concerned over the years." In recent years, they have stopped auditioning and opened the choir to anyone who has performed in a secondary school choir, and numbers have grown to about 65. The singers all enjoy the collegiality of the choir, the ability to meet others with similar interests and how it provides a break from the stress of study. The aim is to do at least two performances a year. Last year the choir performed Vivaldi's Gloria at the Big Sing, and have also performed concerts featuring a mixed bill of classical and popular music. "And those concerts got a standing ovation. They're singing really well. They are singing magnificently." Buchanan puts their success down to a change in the ethos of the choir, which has a student committee very involved in its work. "There's a good range of experience in the choir. There's people who have sung in school choirs their whole lives. There's people doing music degrees. People in national choirs. Everyone gets along." To see: Southern Youth Choir and chamber orchestra, The Armed Man , May 25, 2.30pm, St Paul's Cathedral.
Chicago Tribune
07-02-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
The Rev. John Buchanan, longtime leader of prominent Near North Side congregation, dies
The Rev. John Buchanan was the leader of Fourth Presbyterian Church on the Near North Side — one of Chicago's most prominent congregations and the second-largest Presbyterian church in the U.S. — for 27 years, overseeing significant growth as well as outreach to the less fortunate. Buchanan also was the editor and publisher of the Chicago-based magazine The Christian Century for more than 15 years. 'He transformed Fourth Church, which attracted Chicago's elite of many faiths, into a church of service to hundreds of children from the city's poor neighborhoods, bused to the church for free meals and a tutor and mentoring program, to the homeless, to people in need through a food pantry of free goods, to migrants, providing social services, help with housing, clothing and food and caring,' said Dorothy Pirovano, a friend, neighbor and parishioner. Buchanan, 87, died of complications from surgery Feb. 3 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said his daughter, Diane. He had lived on the Near North Side for many years. John McCormick Buchanan was born in the small railroad town of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and received a degree in political science and government from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster. He moved to Chicago in 1959 to study at the. University of Chicago Divinity School. 'I was compelled deeper and deeper into theology,' Buchanan told the Tribune in 2012. 'Out of that came a sense of calling that this is what I want to do with my life.' Upon his graduation in 1963, Buchanan worked as the pastor of churches in Indiana before becoming head pastor of the Broad Street Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Ohio, which U.S. News & World Report magazine once had termed 'a model congregation.' In 1985, Buchanan was chosen by parishioners to be the pastor and head of staff at Fourth Presbyterian Church, which was formed in 1871 when the congregations of two North Side churches worshipped together for the first time. He was only the fourth senior pastor that the historic North Michigan Avenue church had since 1909. Although Fourth Church had undergone the same changes in character that the rest of society experienced during the 1960s, the congregation long had a public perception of being a church for the wealthy. But Buchanan's predecessor, the Rev. Elam Davies, had begun focusing on the community at large, including launching a tutoring program for children in the nearby Cabrini-Green housing complex, starting a social service center and forming a counseling center. He even removed an expensive pew rental system for reserved seating, opening up worship services to all interested and not just those with means. Under Buchanan's leadership, community outreach intensified — and, the church's makeup began to more accurately reflect the broader community. 'We have more diversity in this congregation than in any church I know anywhere, contrary to the part of our image that everyone who comes here is affluent,' Buchanan told the Tribune in 1988. 'We have the whole wonderful kaleidoscope of the human race in our sanctuary on Sunday morning.' In 1988, the Tribune characterized Buchanan's sermons as 'literate, down-to-earth homilies that combine the biblical message with contemporary theological thought and literary and other references as different as Ernest Hemingway and Marlee Matlin. He touches often on the issue of the existence of God and people's common compulsion to ask, 'Is there a God who really matters?'' 'John was a skilled preacher because he had the mind and heart to put words together in a way that helped people make real sense of their lives,' said Peter Marty, publisher and editor of Christian Century. 'Whether it was a social issue of urgency, a spiritual matter of consequence or an injustice concern that was wounding or even killing people, John addressed every topic with integrity and trustworthiness.' Tom Are, Fourth Church's interim pastor, said as a preacher, Buchanan was 'wise, honest and relevant.' 'He knew that his congregation, located where we are, has responsibilities to pursue justice and to offer services to those in need,' Are said. 'He was recognized across the nation, and in some ways around the world, as a faithful leader offering a witness that the love of God includes all people.' Throughout his tenure at Fourth Church, Buchanan tackled all manner of controversial issues, including the ordination of gays and lesbians and conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians. 'The Presbyterian Church feels that it's our job to shine light on issues that have moral significance,' Buchanan told the Tribune in 2012. '(Issues) that have to do with peace and war and how people are treated.' Buchanan long had been an advocate for allowing ordaining gay and lesbian clergy. Since the turn of the century, the issue has divided the Presbyterian church — and plenty of other denominations nationwide — and in 2011, the Presbyterian Church as a denomination voted to change its constitution to allow openly gay people to be ordained. 'Slowly but surely the whole society is seeing that gay and lesbian people don't pose a threat to overall morality,' Buchanan told the Tribune in 2001. Marty noted that Buchanan 'wasn't afraid to speak truth to power.' 'In fact, on myriad issues … he took plenty of heat for doubling down on convictions that were grounded in his love of God and his inclusive understanding of scripture,' Marty said. 'What I find beautiful is that his personal courage helped move a lot of people to new places and fresh sensibilities, just as it brought them together.' Buchanan also dealt with more mundane issues, including the church's finances and optimal use of its property in its cramped Streeterville neighborhood. That included a plan he supported and promoted more than 20 years ago to sell the air rights to the property just west of the church's historic Gothic revival-style building for $25 million, to allow for the construction of a 64-story condominium tower. Amid significant community and political opposition, Buchanan and other church leaders scrapped the plan in 2009. However, Buchanan then oversaw a pivot, which resulted in the construction from 2011 until late 2012 of what became the Gratz Center, a five-story, $42 million, 80,000-square-foot addition immediately west of the church's sanctuary and parish house. The Gratz Center houses a preschool program, a dining room and kitchen, offices and rooms for Sunday school, tutoring, adult education and meetings. 'We plunged ahead on our own, and the church will soon be able to breathe,' Buchanan told the Tribune in 2012, in anticipation of the addition's completion. In 1996, Buchanan took a year's leave of absence to become moderator for the General Assembly, which is the highest position in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He returned to Fourth Church the following year. In 1997, Buchanan began a side job as editor and publisher of The Christian Century, the monthly Chicago-based magazine that reports on religious news and provides opinions on a host of theological and moral issues. Buchanan started out on the magazine's management and business side but soon expanded to writing a popular biweekly column that addressed often-controversial current topics. Marty said Buchanan's work at the magazine 'helped shape an ethos that prized critical thinking and made faithful living an aspiration for everyone who picked up the magazine.' 'It was quite a run he had (as publisher and editor),' Marty said. 'Some of our current strength at the Century — a progressive magazine devoted to commentary on faith, politics and culture — is a result of John's steady leadership hand.' Buchanan published five books, including 'A New Church for a New World,' 'Being Church' and 'Sermons for the City.' In 2016, he published 'From the Editor's Desk,' a collection of his Christian Century editorials. After retiring from Fourth Church in 2012, Buchanan remained the editor and publisher of Christian Century until 2016. During retirement, Buchanan preached occasionally at various churches, and he also undertook a short-term commitment as an interim pastor at Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church in Dallas. However, much of his time was spent caring for his wife, Sue, whom he married in 1959. She was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2010, and soon was weakened by the ailment. She died in July. 'He dedicated his life to her in her remaining years and took care of her with great tenderness and love,' Diane Buchanan said. 'It was such a beautiful thing to see.' Buchanan also occasionally published posts on a personal blog. His final post, on Dec. 20, was on the Christmas story. 'The story has inspired hope in every circumstance down through history,' Buchanan wrote. 'It has comforted and strengthened and encouraged political dissidents in oppressive political situations down through the centuries right up to the present. In every age, including the present one, it has inspired men and women to hope and strive for a time of peace and justice when all are valued and respected and protected and regarded as equals.' In addition to his daughter, Buchanan is survived by another daughter, Susan, who is an Oak Park village trustee; three sons, John, Andy and Brian; a brother, Bill; 13 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. A memorial service is set for 1 p.m. March 8 at Fourth Presbyterian Church, 126 E. Chestnut St., Chicago.
