2022 Bahá’í Choral Music Festival Devotional Concert - Commemorating the Báb's Martyrdom

Each year more than 200 singers from diverse backgrounds and faiths come from around the globe to participate in the Bahá’í House of Worship Choral Music Festival, which concludes with two public concerts in the auditorium of the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois. More than a thousand people come to the Temple to hear the uplifting music and spiritual readings from the world’s religions.

This year’s festival coincides with a Baha’i Holy Day which marks one of the most dramatic historical events in the Faith: the Martyrdom of the Bab in Persia in 1850.

The Bab was a divine messenger Who ushered in a new era for humankind. He was an advocate of the poor. He supported the advancement of women, universal education, and the study of science—radical ideas in that time and place—ideas for which He gave His life.

It was also the Bab’s mission to prepare the people for the coming of another divine messenger Who would show humanity how to come together to create justice that would lead to universal peace. This was Baha’u’llah. His teachings of the oneness of humanity form the foundation of the Baha’i Faith.

The program of the Festival Concerts will tell the story of the Bab through diverse musical cultures and styles: Classical, Gospel and Negro Spirituals will be sung in English, Arabic and Persian with soloists adding other languages.

The more than 125 singers will come from all across North America to sing under the direction of Van Gilmer, music director at the Baha’i House of Worship. Zoom meetings allowed the singers to get to know one another and learn the music, and they will continue in three days of rehearsals before the concerts.