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AKEDAH
​(pronounced AH'-keh-dah')

A concert story of Genesis 22 with narration and audience participation.  
​​13 minutes.  Grade 4
​Commissioned by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod High School Association
​

2fl. 1ob. 3cl. 1bscl. 1bsn. 2asx. tsx. bsx.  3trp. 4hn. 2trb. 1bs.trb. euph. tuba. timp. 6perc. organ piano


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​AKEDAH performed at 2018 CFAMC National Composers Conference

AKEDAH rehearsal Marietta College, Marshall Kimball, conducting

AKEDAH: Ayers commissioned by national honors band

Composer Jesse Ayers has been commissioned to compose a new work for wind symphony, organ, and narrator by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod National High School Honors Band.  The band will be comprised of the best band students nationally from the WELS high schools and will premiere Ayers' new work, AKEDAH, at their annual weekend festival to be held March 17, 2013, at Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minnesota.

Akedah has been performed by:
The Luther Summer Music Festival Band; Jeffrey Scott Doebler, conducting
Concordia University Irvine Wind Symphony; Jeff Held, conducting
Marietta College Wind Ensemble; Marshall, conducting
Brigham Young University Idaho; Darrell Brown, conducting
Wisconsin Lutheran Synod National Honors Band; Erin Meissner, conducting

Program  Notes

Akedah is Hebrew meaning “the binding” and refers to the Genesis 22 account of Abraham’s binding of Isaac when God tests Abraham by asking him to offer his son of promise as a burnt offering.  As Abraham raises the knife to slay his son, an angel of the Lord stops Abraham, and God provides the substitutionary sacrifice of the ram caught in the thicket, a prefiguring of the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.  

Akedah was commissioned by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Area Lutheran High School Association for the 2013 WELS National Band Festival held at Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minnesota.  In addition to thanking the commissioners for the opportunity to compose this work for their National High School Band, the composer also wishes to acknowledge and thank his former student Kendra Hayes Stickle for her suggestion of the Hebrew word Akedah for the title, as well as thanking family friend Alexandra Gomez-Robbins for her thoughtful consultation on possible titles.