This program also features composer David Conte's "Invocation and Dance" A Choral work based on text taken from Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." The poet is mourning the death of Lincoln; yet in the joyful song of the bird, he hears this carol celebrating life in the midst of the pain of death. The opening slow pulse of the timpani creates a sense of hushed expectation. Conte uses word painting to describe death "undulating" round the world. Contrasting dynamics and the imaginative use of percussion intensify the conflicting emotions. Each voucher is worth $60.