Seacoast Wind Ensemble salutes historic peace makers from around town and around the globe

President Theodore Roosevelt’s work to end the Russo-Japanese War made him the first U.S. president to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Diplomats from Russia and Japan met in Portsmouth as Roosevelt’s guests in 1905, paving the way for the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty.

With music for four historic peacemakers—Jimmy Carter, Martti Ahtisaari, Claiborne Pell and George Mitchell—the third annual Portsmouth Peace Treaty concert will pay musical homage to the ongoing peace efforts Roosevelt helped initiate in Portsmouth more than a century ago.

The historic occasion is well documented, and the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum has worked hard to keep people aware of the Seacoast’s role in Roosevelt’s peacemaking efforts. But residents might be less aware of the important role music played in the peace process. The State Department hired a military band from Boston to come to Portsmouth in 1905 and serve as entertainment for the visiting delegates. In celebration of the treaty, the band led a massive parade that stretched from the area of the salt piles on Market Street to the former Rockingham County Courthouse several blocks away. The mayor of Portsmouth convinced the same band to play weekly concerts in Market Square and at Fort Constitution for the next four weeks.

Richard Spicer, a music historian and conductor of the Seacoast Wind Ensemble, has scoured newspaper archives to find the original programs from those local concerts in 1905. Pulling from a pool of some 140 pieces from those programs, Spicer put together a large concert for the Portsmouth Peace Treaty centennial celebration in 2005.

“I had done quite a bit of research on music related to the Peace Treaty for the 2005 celebrations,” Spicer said. When the concert was over, Chuck Doleac, chairman of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum, decided to make the concert an annual tradition. “They therefore began sponsoring the Seacoast Wind Ensemble to do an annul concert at The Music Hall. This is the third,” Spicer said.

This year’s concert, titled “Peacemakers & Diplomats,” takes place at The Music Hall in Portsmouth on Saturday, June 20. But instead of performing music from the original 1905 programs, Spicer is turning to more recent events as source material.

Two other U.S. presidents have received the Nobel Peace Prize since Roosevelt. The first was Woodrow Wilson and the second was Jimmy Carter, who won the award in 2002 for 30 years of international diplomacy work. Among Carter’s most significant achievements was the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978, which led to the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty the following year. Like Roosevelt, Carter hosted delegates from two warring nations and steered them toward peace, meeting secretly with Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David.

In recognition of Carter’s accomplishments, the Seacoast Wind Ensemble will play music from his presidential inauguration. “I have the entire list of pieces that the U.S. Marine Band played at the inauguration of Jimmy Carter in 1977,” Spicer said.

The ensemble will also play music from the 1979 White House State Dinner that recognized the Camp David Accords. Spicer spoke to former Army Band arranger James Kessler to acquire original music performed at the dinner. Singers from the Portsmouth Pro Musica chorus will join the Wind Ensemble to perform the work. “It combines an Israeli peace song with an Egyptian chant from Sadat’s village,” he said.

Spicer went to the U.S. Marine Corp Band library in Washington D.C. and collected music played for Roosevelt, Wilson and Carter—the three presidential Nobel Prize winners. “I paid a visit to Washington a year ago and they helped put together a folder of material of stuff played for all three presidents. That was sort of a starting point,” he said.

From there, Spicer’s vision for the concert grew. When he learned of the recent death of former Rhode Island Sen. Claiborne Pell, a long-time Foreign Service Officer, he added a selection honoring him. Another piece is devoted to Sen. George Mitchell, who President Obama recently selected as a special envoy to the Middle East. Mitchell helped negotiate the Northern Ireland peace accords in the late 1990s, and Spicer will honor him with a medley of Irish songs.

Rounding out the program, Spicer added a piece called “Finlandia” to recognize former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize winner. Noting that Carter is a lover of the opera, he also threw in a segment from George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.” Spicer thought including work dedicated to former presidents and Nobel Prize winners from two different countries would be a fitting peace tribute.
“I thought, ‘Gee, it would be kind of interesting to combine those two in one program,’” he said.

A number of other events celebrating the Portsmouth Peace Treaty will be held in September. For more information, visit www.portsmouthpeacetreaty.com.

The Music Hall is at 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth, 603-436-2400. Tickets are $15 for adults, $5 for students, seniors and children under 12.