O Lungo Drom (The Long Road): A pre-event interview with Ralf Yusuf Gawlick

Tom Landy, Director of the McFarland Center, interviews Ralf Yusuf Gawlick, composer and Professor of Music at Boston College, prior to the U.S. première of O Lungo Drom (The Long Road): An Oratorio on the Sinti and Roma. The event will take place on Friday, April 5 at 8:15 p.m. in Brooks Concert Hall.
The O Lungo Drom, or “The Long Road” in Romanes, is an oratorio that tracks the history of the Roma and Sinti through the words of Roma/Sinti poets and writers themselves. Ever since their appearance in Europe over a thousand years ago, the Roma have been labeled with ethnically insulting words. These designations reveal a brutal social hierarchy which continues to subject the Roma to constant discrimination and persecution, punctuated by infernal periods of enslavement and genocide. This oratorio contains many significant ‘firsts’: it is the first oratorio on a Romani subject, the first that sets multiple texts by Romani authors themselves, and the first to be set to music by a Rom: Ralf Yusuf Gawlick, Professor of Music at Boston College.
The ensemble for the première is the Alban Berg Ensemble Wien. They are joined by soprano Clara Meloni, baritone Christoph Filler and cimbalomist László Rácz. Holy Cross and Boston College will host joint U.S. premières of the oratorio on April 5 and 6, respectively. This event is a part of the Kraft-Hiatt Program for Jewish-Christian Understanding and is co-sponsored by the Holy Cross Department of Music.

[@wchynidearfrancois9943]

Lungo drom...Congrats dear composer of good music. R.Y Gawlick