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Remembrance and Renewal


The Dickinson College Collegium addressed social-justice issues in its spring concert, Remembrance and Renewal, when it premiered a newly commissioned work about bullying and prejudice against gay youth.

Robert Pound, associate professor of music, composed the piece, titled requiem-elegy, in response to the 2010 death of Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old violinist and Rutgers University student who committed suicide after his roommate posted video on the Internet of Clementi’s intimate encounter with another male.

“The death of Clementi, a promising violinist in his first weeks at college, came amid a string of high-profile suicides of young people who were gay or perceived to be gay,” Pound wrote. “His case started a national conversation on bullying, one we continue with a requiem that advocates for the silent and silenced.” [Story continues below.] 


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  • Robert Andrew Yordan '14 is one of two oboists in the chamber orchestra.
    Robert Yordan '14
  • The Collegium concert drew a large audience to the Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium.
    ATS
  • Kimberly Kelley teaches bassoon at Dickinson as an adjunct professor. She also teaches at Franklin & Marshall, York and Messiah Colleges and the Maryland Conservatory of Music.
    Kimberly Kelley
  • The vocalists await their cue.
    Counting Measures
  • Aubrey Holmes '11 performs a solo during Robert Pound's requiem-elegy. Holmes has performed in a concert tour in China and was a guest instrumentalist in the Sinfonietta Polonia.
    Aubrey Holmes '11
  • David Knott plays the timpani. Knott is the director of percussion studies at Messiah College. He also has taught percussion at Dickinson.
    David Knott
  • Soprano Juliana Burdick '11 portrayed Tyler Clementi's mother in Pound's requiem.  Above, she sings, "It wasn't always blue dissolution. In those days, he was a violin plinking in the rain."
    Juliana Burdick '11
  • Brayden Downing '13, a double major in music and economics, performs during the concert.
    Brayden Downing '13
  • Narrators Juliana Burdick '11, a soprano, and Laura Costa '10, an alto, tell the story of Tyler Clementi's death.
    Laura Costa '10
  • Conductor Sean Parr, visiting assistant professor of music, acknowledges the audience's applause. Parr teaches music history, opera, world music and historical performance.
    Sean Parr
  • Robert Pound, associate professor of music, composed the requiem performed during the spring Collegium concert. Above, Pound, the conductor of the Dickinson College Orchestra, waits to go onstage before an orchestral concert earlier this spring.
    Robert Pound
Robert Andrew Yordan '14 is one of two oboists in the chamber orchestra.Prev ImageNext Image

In the requiem, Pound and librettist E. Louise Beach unveiled the consequences of bullying by portraying the events and perceptions that may have led to Clementi’s death. Narrators Eric Rosenstein ’11, Laura Costa ’10, Juliana Burdick ’11 and Matthew Linnehan ’12 told the story. Burdick and Taylor Bell ’11 portrayed Clementi’s parents. The concluding message arrived when Costa sang, “How good and pleasing it would be if we, kindred, lived together in unity.”

The performance also highlighted the talents of instrumentalists Alice Bish (viola), Instructor in Music Michael Cameron (cello) and solo violinists Blanka Bednarz, associate professor and chair of music, and Aubrey Holmes ’11.

Conductor Sean Parr, visiting assistant professor of music, balanced the weightiness of the subject matter with notes of hope, thanks to Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria and with Mozart’s jubilant Regina Coeli. The latter piece included solos by soprano Laura Takakjy ’11, alto Morgan Levinson ’13, tenor Michael Hoke ’12 and baritone Christopher Theodorou ’13.

Pound also is conductor of the Dickinson College Orchestra and choir. See pictures of the spring orchestral and choir concert. 

By MaryAlice Bitts Jackson
Photos by Jen Crowley ’12