Portraits in Faith inspires
thousands through virtual concert series
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| Virtual Concerts for Healing and Protection flier |
Virtual Concerts for Protection and Healing, inspiring
thousands of people of various faith traditions since the beginning of April,
signs Catholic artist John Angotti.
By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp
At the beginning of April, Portraits in Faith launched a
series of Virtual Concerts for Protection and Healing. Since then, they have
hosted 5 concerts, and at least another 13 performances have been confirmed for
the future.
These concerts are featured on the Portraits of Faith
Facebook account. The concert posts have received over 45,000 views since the
concert series began, with about 1,200 hours of viewing time.
Daniel Epstein, Founder of Portraits in Faith spoke with
Vatican News about the concept of the concerts and who some of the upcoming
artists are.
Portraits in Faith
Speaking about Portraits in Faith, Daniel Epstein says it is
“about the oneness of humanity.” His goal is that people “have an experience of
receiving the story of someone they perceived to be the other”.
Daniel Epstein founded Portraits in Faith when he was a
Marketing Director for Procter & Gamble. As he traveled for business, he
began to include a faith dimension to find, and then nurture the “God-sized
hole” inside. The spiritual exercise he incorporated into his life was that of
interviewing people about their own personal faith lives. Over a period
of 15 years, Epstein has interviewed 500 people living in 27 countries who come
from 50 different faith backgrounds. So far, 115 of these interviews have been
published, for a total of 300,000 views on YouTube. These testimonies can be
found on the Portrait of Faith
website.
The interview that has received the highest number of hits
is that of Maria Carminia Lourdes Cynthia Arnaldo Gutierrez, also known
as Chin Chin
Gutierrez. At the time of the interview, she was a Filipino actress. She is
now Sr Lourdes and has been a member of a Carmelite monastery since 2010.
Protection and healing through virtual concerts
That naturally led to the idea of providing virtual concerts
online, Epstein says. “I just thought about bringing people together and giving
them music and prayer from many different traditions so that we might be
comforted. I say the concerts are for protection and healing.”
Response from artists
Epstein says that artists have been responding very
positively to sign on to the series. Because many artists are not working, he
is grateful to offer a small fee “which I know helps in difficult times”, he
says. Artists in general, he continues, are “giving such a great gift. The
outpouring of the creative community during this crisis has been amazing and
that's been true for all the people I’ve contacted. They’ve been eager to give back”.
The most recent concert featured Roman Orona, a Native
American. He shared “prayers and chants and drumming in Native American flute”.
Another featured an Israeli artist. Upcoming concerts feature a Sufi spoken
word artist, and a “a major Catholic singer-songwriter John Angotti from
Nashville who's going to be performing”. “it's really been a wonderful mix”,
Epstein notes.
The concert experience
Each concert lasts one hour. So far, Portraits in Faith has
hosted five such concerts. Every artist is invited to open and close the
concert with a prayer from their tradition of their choosing. It's been really
beautiful so far”, Epstein says.
About 15,000 people have tuned in to the more popular
artists. “Each tradition brings a certain amount of popularity based on its
population in the world”, Epstein explains. He emphasized that it is obvious
that people are “also watching traditions other than their own”.
Comfort and hope
In the end, Epstein hopes that these concerts provide both
comfort and hope. “there's so many unknowns in this pandemic that I think
people are definitely holding onto faith and trying to muster up faith”. This,
he believes, “is what comes through in the concert for people”.
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