November 11, 2018, marked the hundredth anniversary of the end of the first World War – the war to end all wars. It saw the mobilization of more than 70 million military personnel. The fighting cost the lives of 9 million combatants and seven million civilians, and the war contributed to other factors – including a worldwide flu epidemic, that cost the lives of tens of millions more.

In our time, we come to understand the war by studying its history. But much of what we imagine about living in the world during that conflict has been shaped by our experience with the work of poets, authors, composers, and musicians of the time. We are moved by Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front,” or the poetry of “In Flanders Fields” by John McRae, or “Marching Men” by Marjorie Pickthall, or “My Boy Jack” by Kipling.

Today on Highway 89, we're very pleased to welcome pianist Scott Holden and baritone Robert Brandt into the studio. They bring with them a handful of pieces by World-War-I-era composers; George Butterworth, Ivor Gurney, and Frederick Keel among them.