A cry for peace - a look back at the choir project and concert:
Freiburg-Merzhausen, Johanneskirche, oct 5th, 2025
Konzert am Sonntag, den 17.Mai 2026 Leipzig, Peterskirche
Soloists: Elisabeth Kreuzer and Dorothee Schlemm-Gál (alto), Markus E.Brock (tenor)
Special Guest: Aeham Ahmad
In this concert project, the Syrian-Palestinian pianist and singer Aeham Ahmad performed in alternation with movements from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s *Vespers*, Op. 37. Maarten van Leer conducted the International Choir for Peace.
"A Cry for Peace"— that inner and outer, human and existential call for peace—resounded poignantly and across cultural boundaries in Merzhausen near Freiburg, as well as in Leipzig’s St. Peter’s Church, a venue highly sought after for concerts.
photos by Halim Bruno Knobel
Aeham Ahmad’s piano improvisations blended with his high vocal register in a manner that was both profoundly authentic and stylistically unique. He would often begin by listening with deep devotion to individual notes, from which he would then develop magnificent pieces—full of spontaneous expression, highly virtuosic, rich in color, and often unpredictable. Aeham’s musical forms can take the shape of miniatures or spin out into improvisations lasting many minutes and filled with surprises; while predominantly rooted in Arabic tonality, they occasionally venture into free tonality whenever his artistic temperament demands it.
Quite rightly, Aeham Ahmad—who rose to overnight fame in 2015 as "the Pianist from the Ruins of Yarmouk"—is today a highly sought-after artist on stages across Europe. His life story has forced him to experience, in an unimaginably drastic manner, the true meaning of war; consequently, his music resonates with an incomparable intensity—the existential human cry for peace.
We extend our deepest gratitude to Aeham Ahmad for his invaluable contribution to our concert project.
The Christian Orthodox choral works of the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) reveal a side of this renowned artist that is far less familiar than his virtuoso concert music.
The Vespers op. 37 - scored for mixed choir - is sonically multifaceted: at times deeply intimate, at others glorifying; it features sounds that are now soulfully prayerful, now jubilant - sounds that, while entirely European and tonal in character, nonetheless possess a unique coloration.
Rachmaninoff composed this work in 1915 in a mere fourteen days; it was intended for use in the evening and early morning liturgies of Orthodox monasteries.
Movements 1 through 8 were performed in this concert.
For this project, the International Choir for Peace comprised approximately 50 singers from Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Colombia.
Maarten van Leer led performances and rehearsals at the very highest level, while simultaneously demonstrating boundless patience and joy.
photos by Halim Bruno Knobel
We thank everyone involved and all those who made this ambitious concert project possible:
- Aeham Ahmad
- Maarten van Leer
- the singers of the International Choir for Peace
- the outstanding soloists Dorothee Schlemm-Gál, Elisabeth Kreuzer, and Markus E. Brock
- all donors and supporters.