Concert honors America's realities, commemorates Pulse anniversary
The history of the United States is filled with hope and honor and achievement. But also with sorrow and hate and pain.
The Orlando Choral Society aims to address all of that, in music, at its next concert: “The Pulse of Liberty: 250 Years of the American Heart.”
The concert on May 2 will be part of America250 celebrations across the country, commemorating the nation’s semiquincentennial. But it will also commemorate the 10th anniversary of the mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub, at the time the largest mass shooting in American history.
“This program bridges these two milestones,” says Jeffery Redding, the Grammy-winning music educator who leads the Orlando Choral Society, “exploring how the ‘Pulse’ of our local resilience is an essential part of the broader 250-year American story.”
Addressing the challenges and triumphs of our times is central to Redding’s vision for the organization, which started 19 years ago as the Winter Garden Community Choir.
“Having been born and raised right here in Orlando, this city means everything to me,” says Redding, whose day job is director of choral activities and associate professor at the University of Central Florida. “My mission has always been ‘Passion and Purpose’ - specifically, building community through song. I believe the healthy development of our city depends on how we care for one another, and music is the vehicle through which we do that work. ”
Featured on the program are the four groups under the Choral Society umbrella: the Winter Garden Community Choir, the Soprano-Alto Choir, Tenor-Bass Choir and OSC Ensemble, a select chamber group.
“To tell this story fully, we are featuring all the distinct voices of our organization,” Redding says.
Songs move from the historical endurance of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” to the sacred, soaring memorials of Frank Ticheli's “There Will Be Rest” and Ryan Murphy's “Flight.”
“These pieces transform our collective grief for the 49 Pulse victims into an act of musical ascension,” Redding says.
While Redding believes the concert ultimately will be “uplifting and transforming,” it won’t shy away from the challenges America faces.
“We are not interested in sugarcoating the hardship of where we are as a country,” he says. “We are living in a time of significant tension. This program acknowledges that pain. We are using our music to look directly at the struggle - the ‘stony road’ of our past and the jagged grief of the Pulse tragedy - while maintaining a fierce resolve to grow, to remember and to be better people.”
He says the country needs to embrace its diversity, rather than fearing it.
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“Our strength as a nation does not lie in a forced sameness but in celebrating our differences. It is the friction and the harmony of those differences where our true power resides,” he says. “There are all kinds of people living in America trying to find the dream. Basically, our differences are what make us stronger.”
That sentiment, he says, is perfectly reflected in one of the concert’s cornerstone works: “Unity” by M. Cason II.
“It is a piece that doesn’t just ask for peace,” Redding says. “It demands the hard work of coming together.”
He hopes attendees find the concert makes them feel closer to one another - and Orlando.
“This concert is a communal ritual of truth-telling and healing for a city I love dearly,” Redding says. “It’s going to be powerful.”
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‘The Pulse of Liberty’
• Where: First United Methodist Church of Orlando, 142 E. Jackson St. in Orlando
• When: 7 p.m. May 2
• Cost: $11.05 adults, $7.89 youths
• Info:teachtix.com/orlandochoralsociety/the-pulse-of-liberty
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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 5:12 AM.