An Interfaith Concert at Second Presbyterian Church
Thursday, February 28, 7 pm [FREE CONCERT]

As a celebration of the World Day of Prayer and recognition of God’s deep love for all people, Second Presbyterian Church will host a very special FREE concert: “Music & Words for All God’s People”.

Called to be faithful to God and to be good neighbors with one another, we gather together to celebrate with great music and meaningful words from various faith traditions. Joining us will be Rabbi Andy Gordon from the Bolton Street Synagogue, Shahab Qarni, from the Greater Baltimore Muslim Council, Sukhseet Singh Gill from the Sikh Community and Reverends Amy Carlson and Dr. Tom Blair from Second Presbyterian Church.

Featuring the Todd Marcus Jazz Orchestra

Our musical concert will come from bass clarinetist Todd Marcus and his 10-piece ensemble the Todd Marcus Jazz Orchestra. The performance will present Middle-Eastern inspired music composed by Marcus that reflects an embrace of his Egyptian heritage. These include arrangements from his album Blues for Tahrir that portrayed Egypt’s 2011 revolution with a suite of compositions capturing the movement’s different phases, and selections from In the Valley that offer unique new directions in jazz that seek to portray both ancient and modern landscapes in Egypt.

“I’ve been interested in incorporating Middle Eastern musical influences as a way to pull something unique from my culture and fuse it with my music.” Marcus explains. “It’s been challenging because jazz and Middle-Eastern music are so different. While jazz uses a lot of rich harmony, Middle-Eastern music tends to be a lot of unison playing or over drones and if you try to add chords, it diminishes the Middle-Eastern feel of the music. So it’s taken a lot of experimenting to find ways to make this fusion of the two musics work.”