Prayer of the Children is a song originally written for four-part men's voices, with words and music written by Kurt Bestor and arranged by Andrea S. Klouse. The first performance of the song was by the 1999 Georgia Men's All-State Choir, for whom the initial printing was specifically arranged. Bestor served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Serbia during the 1970's. Bestor described how he came to write the song:

   "Having lived in this war-torn country back in the late 1970's, I grew to love the people with whom I lived. It didn't matter to me their ethnic origin - Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian - they were all just happy, fun people to me, and I counted as friends people from each region. Of course, I was always aware of the bigotry and ethnic differences that bubbled just below the surface, but I always hoped that the peace this rich country enjoyed would continue indefinitely. Obviously, that didn't happen. When Yugoslavian President Josip Broz Tito died, different political factions jockeyed for position, and the inevitable happened - civil war. Suddenly, my friends were pitted against each other. Serbian brother wouldn't talk to Croatian sister-in-law. Bosnian mother disowned Serbian son-in-law, and so it went. Meanwhile, all I could do was stay glued to the TV back in the US and sink deeper in a sense of hopelessness. Finally, one night I began channeling these deep feelings into a wordless melody. Then, little by little, I added words, "Can you hear....?" "Can you feel......?" I started with these feelings - sensations that the children struggling to live in this difficult time might be feeling. Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian children all felt the same feelings of confusion and sadness and it was for them that I was writing this song."

Can you hear the prayer of the children on bended knee, in the shadow of an unknown room?
Empty eyes with no more tears to cry turning heavenward toward the light.
Crying," Jesus, help me to see the morning light of one more day,
but if I should die before I wake, I pray my soul to take."
Can you feel the hearts of the children aching for home, for something of their very own.
Reaching hands with nothing to hold onto but hope for a better day, a better day.
Crying, "Jesus, help me to feel the love again in my own land,
but if unknown roads lead away from home, give me loving arms, away from harm."
Can you hear the voice of the children softly pleading for silence in their shattered world?
Angry guns preach a gospel full of hate, blood of the innocent on their hands.
Crying, "Jesus, help me to feel the sun again upon my face?
For when darkness clears, I know you're near, bringing peace again."
Dali cuje te sve djecje molitve? (Can you hear the prayer of the children?)

Written for the Sonoran Desert Chorale, Through Their Eyes contains musical settings of three children’s thoughts on peace, age 12, 11 and 10 respectively.  The insight of those at such a young age combined with the simple and engaging musical style appeals to all generations. Dave and Jean Perry have been writing and publishing their songs for schools and churches for twenty-four years. Their music has been performed by choirs in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, North America and Australia. They have over two hundred fifty songs in print and are recipients of special composers awards from ASCAP.

Adolphus Hailstork received his doctorate in composition from Michigan State University, where he was a student of H. Owen Reed. He had previously studied at Manhattan School of Music under Vittono Giannini and David Diamond, at the American Institute at Fountainbleau with Nadia Boulanger, and at Howard University with Mark Fax. Dr. Hailstork has written numerous works for chorus, solo voice, various chamber ensembles, band, and orchestra. Mr. Hailstork currently is on the faculty of Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia, where he is Professor of Music and Composer-in-Residence.  In his own words:

   "When I began singing as a boy soprano in the (Episcopal) Cathedral of All Saints, in Albany, New York, I fell in love with choral music. Participation in the great Anglican choral tradition with its treasury of splendid music ranging from Gregorian chant to Ralph Vaughan Williams and beyond, was one of the formative influences in my musical life.  Another powerful experience was four years singing in the remarkable Howard University choir led by Warner Lawson. From 1959 to 1963, the choir appeared frequently with the National Symphony Orchestra, performing major choral works such as the Verdi Requiem, the Beethoven Ninth Symphony, and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.  My very first composition was written for my high school choir, my first published work was a madrigal, Cease Sorrows Now, and my first contest prize was the Ernest Bloch Award for another choral work, Mourn Not the Dead.  Various works (Nocturne, I Will Sing Of Life, and A Carol For All Children) were written from a humanist viewpoint for the choir of the Unitarian Church of Norfolk, where I have served as choir director since 1979."

As with many contemporary composers, Hailstork's rich harmonic language is based on the traditional scales and modes. To these, dissonance is added, usually to give a dramatic expression of the text. to highlight a specific word, or to create a more general mood. As with many pieces on today's program, the "light of life" and "peace" seem to have the most emphasis as he implores all children to lead us in the right path.

The first person ever to record one of Carol Hall's songs was the young Barbra Steisand. Subsequently, her songs were performed by such extraordinary singers as Tony Bennett, Barbara Cook, Margaret Whiting, Julie Wilson, Chita Rivera, Michael Feinstein, Mabel Mercer, Amanda McBroom, Lari White, Olivia Newton-John, Maureen McGovern, Miriam Makeba, Ru Paul, David Campbell, Frederica von Stade, Kermit the Frog and Big Bird. She is also one of the few songwriters to have a hit Broadway musical. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas entertained Broadway audiences for almost five years, received a Grammy nomination for its cast album, and became a popular film starring Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton. As Carol says in one of her CD booklets, "a song is not a song until somebody sings it..."  Jenny Rebecca is a nostalgic look from a parental perspective about the promise of a young life not yet discovered.

Kenneth Patchen's father was a steel worker in Youngstown and, later, in Warren, Ohio. As a young man Patchen followed his father's example and worked briefly in the mills; but, having decided to be a writer, he attended college, and then traveled around the country. While supporting himself with odd jobs, he spent what time he could developing his abilities with language. Patchen had a strong leftist political sensibility, formed in part by his youth in the steel towns and in part by his travels around the country during the Depression. Critics initially labelled him one of the leftist writers of the decade, but if he was a political poet, he was a writer more strongly affected by the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. This influence can be felt in the free, whimsical associations characteristic of his work and in his determined lack of concern for traditional forms of literature. Although Patchen liked to deny this influence, it can be seen clearly in today's piece of only fifty seconds, An Easy Decision.  This is an example of his series of poems that retain the external characteristics of traditional fables but which revel in freewheeling Dadaist absurdities. In traditional fables, marvelous things happen - animals talk, snow falls in July, etc. - but these are justified by various conventions. The story, for example, may be an allegory, and the talking animals are supposed to be representations of human types, or the absurdities may be justified as ways of entertaining the reader while he is being taught a moral truth. But Patchen dispenses with the justifications and lets the fable take its own direction, no matter how absurd (and usually, at the same time, hilarious) that may be. The result is wonderful Dadaist nonsense.

Rabbit Skunk was commissioned by the Peninsula Women's Chorus under Patty Hennings as part of a poetry in the schools project.  The poet, Jennifer Brissman, was a student in a local elementary school.  The version for mixed chorus was premiered by the San Jose Symphonic Choir.  The piece has been recorded by the Peninsula Women's Chorus.  It is a delightful, story-telling piece where the chorus plays the various dramatic roles using a variety of vocal techniques complemented by the piano accompaniment.  Brian Holmes composes mostly for solo voice or chorus.  He has written three one act operas, two musicals, a requiem mass, two extended Christmas works for chorus and orchestra, ten song cycles, and almost one hundred pieces for chorus.  He has numerous commissions, publications, prizes, and recordings to his credit.  Holmes is a professor of physics at San Jose State University, where he teaches a course on the physics of music.  He graduated from Pomona College, and received a PhD from Boston University.

The Appalachian tune Calling All My Children Home was originally written and performed by the Country Gentlemen and subsequently arranged for and performed by Chanticleer on the Our American Journey album.  It is plainly a folk tune with a simple sentiment of children grown and moved far from the home where they were raised.  All parents can empathize with the longing of the text to just see once again those that have filled their life with purpose and meaning.