Meg Hibbert
Contributing writer
Local musician Aaron Garber’s “Requiem for All People” will debut Sunday, March 8, in Salem before it is performed at Carnegie Hall in 2027.
Garber is the Organist and Choir Director at First United Methodist Church in Salem, as well as director of the Jefferson Choral Society in Lynchburg.
It was while he was in Paris he had the idea for “Requiem for All People,” Garber said.
“I started writing it last June. I was in Notre Dame in Paris sitting in service in May,” he said.
“The title Requiem for All People is intended to be telling,” Garber explained. “In addition to it being accessible for singers, the music is melodic and repetitive enough that listeners should be able to understand and appreciate the mood of the music as it combines with the text the first time they hear it.”
“A Requiem traditionally is to honor and remember the dead,” he continued. ‘All People’ reflects that this music is not just for the dead but for those of us still alive to experience it,” Garber added.
He believes it is written in a way a lot of people will like it, and “It is accessible to singers and string quartets.”
He said he scored his work for soprano, alto, tenor and bass chorus with a soprano solo. Adelaide Trombetta will sing the premier, and there will be a piano and string quartet along with First United Methodist Church’s Sanctuary Choir.
He wrote Requiem for other churches or choruses to perform easily. “A larger string ensemble would be perfectly fine,” Garber added, “or just the piano accompaniment alone will suffice.”
“None of the four voice parts ever divide, so there is never more than four-part harmony within the choir. I did this to allow it to be performed for smaller choirs,” he said.
The work is broken into 10 movements and is approximately 60 minutes long, Garber said. The movements are Requiem Aeternam, Kyrie, Come Unto Me, Sanctus, Blessed Are They, Instrumental Interlude, Pie Jesu, The Lord Is My Shepherd, Agnus Dei and O Lord, Support Us. The text uses the Latin from the Requiem Mass and texts in English from the Bible and a prayer by John Henry Newman, added Garber.
“Requiem” was commissioned by a group of individuals for its premier performance at First United Church this Sunday at 4 p.m. This performance is free.
Later this month “Requiem” will be performed at Trinity Ecumenical Parish in Moneta on April 25 at 4 p.m. and the following day, April 26 at 4 p.m. by the Jefferson Choral Society at the University of Lynchburg’s Snidow Chapel. Tickets are $25 for each of those performances and may be purchased at the door or in advance at Lynchburgtickets.com.
“Requiem” is scheduled to make its Carnegie Hall debut a year from now on March 7, 2027.
Vocalists from Salem and the Roanoke Valley and New River Valley are being accepted for the debut at Carnegie Hall, Garber said. Anybody who wants to sing is welcome to contact him, he said, by calling the United Methodist Church office, 540-389-5459.
This is Garber’s eighth major work. He has written opera, oratorios and shorter works. The 52-year-old lives in Botetourt County. He has two grown children, Matthew, 23, and Julia, 21.
