Wendel Werner ‘Concert of Peace’ at 6 p.m. Sunday at First Presbyterian

Local pianist and composer Wendel Werner and friends will present a “concert of peace” on Sunday, October 15, at 6 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church in the wake of the racially charged violence August 12 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The free concert will feature local singers and instrumentalists who will perform songs having themes of hope, inclusivity, and love, a press release said.

The release said the following words of Leonard Bernstein, famous American composer and conductor, continue to inspire musicians to offer gifts of melody, rhythm, and harmony to their communities:“The point is, art never stopped a war and never got anybody a job. That was never its function. Art cannot change events. But it can change people. It can affect people so that they are changed … because people are changed by art—enriched, ennobled, encouraged—then they act in a way that may affect the course of events … by the way they vote, they behave, the way they think.

“This will be our response to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”

Also at the church this Sunday, a four-week series on death and dying and on end-of-life issues will be presented by the Reverend Sharon Youngs, church pastor, and Meg Tonne, retired parish nurse, at 1 p.m. in the fellowship hall of the church’s sanctuary building. First Presbyterian Church is located at 1051 Oak Ridge Turnpike.

This press release was submitted by Carolyn Krause.