Yale Divinity School Raises Its Voice in a Celebration of Psalms

Coinciding with Yale's Tercentennial, Yale Divinity School, Berkeley Divinity School and the Institute of Sacred Music will celebrate the University's long history of Biblical study, musical performance and theological formation with a four-day conference, "Up with a Shout," on psalms in Jewish and Christian musical traditions.

Coinciding with Yale’s Tercentennial, Yale Divinity School, Berkeley Divinity School and the Institute of Sacred Music will celebrate the University’s long history of Biblical study, musical performance and theological formation with a four-day conference, “Up with a Shout,” on psalms in Jewish and Christian musical traditions.

The multi-disciplinary event will bring Jewish and Christian leaders together with scholars and practitioners in an exploration of texts common to the liturgies and practices of both faiths.

Held at the Yale Divinity School January 19-23, “Up with a Shout” will include performances of sacred music, a panel discussion by hospital chaplains and an interdenominational range of religious services exploring the various ways psalms figure in arts, culture and religious observance.

The event will begin at 8:15 on Friday night with services at Temple B’nai Jacob, 75 Rimmon Road, Woodbridge. At 5 p.m. on Saturday, observances of the Jewish Sabbath will continue with a Sabbath meal and homily followed by Havdalah (ceremony marking Sabbath’s end) at the Joseph Slifka Center, 80 Wall Street.

At 8:15 p.m. on Saturday, “Up with a Shout” will continue at Woolsey Hall, on the corner of College and Grove Streets, with the Yale Camarata and the Heritage Chorale joining in an American psalmody. Marguerite Brooks and Jonathan Berryman will conduct the acclaimed choral groups in the premiere of a new setting of a psalm by composer Stephen Paulus.

New Haven churches will celebrate “Psalmody Sunday” in their services throughout the day and into the night on January 22. Participating churches and the times of their services are Center Church on the Green, at 10 a.m.; Christ Church, 11 a.m.; Church of St. Mary at noon; Sacred Heart Church, 2 p.m.; Trinity Church on the Green, 5:30 p.m.; Christ Church, 10 p.m.

Also on Sunday, at 8 p.m., musicians from Yale and the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion will perform Christian and Jewish psalmody together at Battell Chapel, on the corner of Elm and College Streets. A new setting of a psalm by Simon Sargon will premiere at this performance.

An interfaith panel discussion, “Psalms in Life and Death,” with New Haven area hospital chaplains, will be the final event of the conference. It will take place at the United Church on the Green at 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday, January 23.

The “Up with a Shout” conference was supported by a grant from the Lilly Endowment.

Yale, which was founded in 1701, is engaged in a yearlong celebration of its Tercentennial. The climactic Tercentennial Celebration is scheduled for October 5-6, 2001. Throughout the anniversary year, Yale is offering special public events and exhibits that reflect on the University’s past and prompt consideration of Yale’s future.

For further information about these free and open events, call 203-432-5180 or e-mail melissa.maier@yale.edu. For information about other Tercentennial events that Yale will be hosting throughout the year, call the Tercentennial Office at 203-432-0300 or visit the website www.yale.edu/yale300.

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Media Contact

Dorie Baker: dorie.baker@yale.edu, 203-432-1345