Two New England Conservatory students organized an evening of music and discussion set for Thursday to focus on whether our rights and responsibilities change during wartime, with a focus on hot-button topics like the prisoners at Gitmo. Conductors Michael Reichman and Brian Kaufman, both first-year grad students at NEC, are behind "Musical Diplomacy," which comprises a concert featuring three premiere works written especially for the concert and a discussion with experts in law and human rights. It's free to the public and happens Thursday at 8 p.m. in NEC’s Brown Hall, at 30 Gainesborough St. in Boston.
A student ensemble will open the concert with Aaron Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man," followed by the three new pieces: grad student Derek David 's Elegy for Symphony Orchestra; student Albert Oppenheimer's Psalm for the Certain; and Gregory Nicolett’s Forbidden to Face the Natural Light, which includes clips from a segment about Guantanamo Bay from National Public Radio’s This American Life. Nicolett is a TV and movie composer whose work for NPR initially inspired Kaufman's interest in the topic. Reichman, a flutist, and Kaufman, a tubist, are both studying wind ensemble conducting at NEC and will conduct the pieces.
After the music, it's a discussion with Dr. James Keagle, professor of National Security from the National Defense University in Washington D.C.; Hurst Hannum, professor of International Law at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy with a specialty in International Human Rights Law; and Farah Stockman, a Globe reporter specializing in foreign affairs.
We've all been to serious-minded student events that were like musical waterboarding, of course, but this sounds like a good one.
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