On Ash Wednesday, the Notre Dame Folk Choir released its latest album, The Passion. Through song and spoken word, the album’s 40 tracks present the events of Holy Week through the eyes of Jesus’ disciples, led by a character called Memory who guides them as they grieve the loss of their friend. This collective work of praise invites listeners to find themselves in the story and to contemplate the experience of Christ’s passion. The theology underlying this piece is that the passion as a faith environment can help us enter into a discussion about difficult things in our own lives in a meaningful way. For two years, the choir’s 60 students collaborated with professional artists, including poet and librettist Tristan Cooley, to compose the text and music of The Passion, staging the work over a series of workshops and retreats designed to communally rediscover the mystery of Christ’s saving passion and death. Last spring, ThinkND shared our journey of creation and collaboration in the series The Way of the Cross: A Passion Pilgrimage Through Song.
Produced by three-time Grammy winner Joe Henry, the album was recorded in Jerusalem at the end of the choir’s weeklong pilgrimage to the Holy Land. While there, we traveled from Galilee to Golgotha, following in the footsteps of Jesus — an experience that was not only moving but also added depth to the project. The day we recorded the crucifixion scene, we went to the Holy Sepulchre in the morning so that we could connect our artistic work with our faith and our ministerial work. It was really impactful in all the ways that we had hoped and in the end, I think we were able to capture something really special because of the context that we were in.
ThinkND and the Folk Choir now invite you to a deeper connection with the Passion through a multi-media presentation of reflections from students about what it was like to collaborate on and perform The Passion, alongside custom created artwork and a full-length lyric video of The Passion album that can be accessed throughout Holy Week. Then, join us on Good Friday, April 7, 2023 at 8:30p.m. ET for the live stream of the fully staged production of The Passion directed by Matt Hawkins, director of musical theater at Notre Dame, featuring an all-student cast in an on-campus performance on Notre Dame’s South Quad.
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