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Inspired
Inspired is the nation's leading public radio show about faith, ethics and spirituality. Each week we offer you analyses of the big headlines alongside lesser-told stories – those of Orthodox Jewish artists and African-American atheists, Muslim feminists and spiritual seekers. Through these stories, a rough sketch of our country’s religious landscape begins to emerge. It’s a marketplace of beliefs and ideas too complex for sound bites, and too important to ignore.
This week we feature selections from the December 8, 2019 Sounds of Faith concert at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Exploring America’s Religious Diversity Through Music
On this special episode, we feature selections from the December 8, 2019 Sounds of Faith concert at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History along with interviews with Dr. Peter Manseau the Lilly Endowment Curator of Religious History. Manseau explains how music transcends the separation often found in museums and creates a different way for the public to understand America’s complicated religious history. Performances from Orfeia showcase Bulgarian and Balkan songs from Koleda, an ancient pagan holiday from Eastern Europe, and traditional Hanukkah songs performed by Senior Cantor Arianne Brown from the Addas Israel Congregation in Washington, DC.
From Hebrew to Gospel: When Music Becomes the Religious Experience
Cantor Arianne Brown describes how at an early age the religious music of her tradition deepened her spiritual practice and led her to study at Jewish Theological Seminary where she became a professional Jewish musician. We hear her favorite liturgical hymns of the season including Sephardic selection sung in Ladino, an ancient language from Spain that evolved before the expulsion of Jews in the 15th Century. The segment closes with the Calypso Carroll, performed by Howard University’s premier vocal jazz ensemble Afro Blue.
Select Performances from “Islam and Jazz” at the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra Performance
According to Dr. Hussein Rashid, a religious literacy expert and cultural competency consultant who teaches at the New School in New York, you miss the depth of the genre if you don’t appreciate the religious and spiritual dimensions of music. That focus guided artistic director and conductor Charlie Young who led the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra performance that concluded the Sounds of Faith concert series. This segment includes longer selections from the evening program and closes with “We the King” performed by Afro Blue.
