Green Hope After Black Rain (Symphony for the Survivors of Manzanar, Hiroshima and Nagasaki)

Composer Steve Heitzeg's Green Hope After Black Rain had its world premiere at the Saint Paul Civic Symphony, the Sister Orchestra of the Nagasaki Symphony Orchestra. A mini documentary about the piece and performance was also posted. Music Director Jeffrey Stirling led the performances.

“I composed Green Hope After Black Rain (Symphony for the Survivors of Manzanar, Hiroshima and Nagasaki) in honor of the survivors of the Japanese American concentration camps and the A-bombed people and A-bombed trees of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The symphony is a call for peace and a protest against injustice, the atomic bomb and other weapons of mass destruction, and the insanity of war.

The score includes various natural percussion instruments such as branches, leaves, dried cherry blossoms and seed pods from A-bombed Gingko, Eucalyptus, Camphor and Cherry trees from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a Taiko drum, stones from Manzanar Japanese American Concentration Camp and Hiroshima, a temple bell and origami peace cranes.

As an artist, I feel I have a responsibility to speak out through the power of music about peace and justice.”

—Steve Heitzeg, composer

July 22, 2022

Minneapolis-Saint Paul

To view the full performance, click here. To view the mini documentary, click here.