When Geoffrey Wilcken accepted a commission from the Lawrence Civic Choir in 2003 to create a musical composition in honor of Lawrence’s sesquicentennial, he knew he had a big job ahead of him.

After all, 150 years is a long time — how do you lyrically evoke decades of historical events and important personalities, while also looking ahead to the city’s future?

“The commission proposal was open-ended. But it seemed to me that a celebration of Lawrence’s sesquicentennial at least had something to do with our history, and that seemed like a logical place to start,” says Wilcken, director of music at Immanuel Lutheran Church and University Student Center, 2104 Bob Billings Parkway.

So Wilcken hit the books, doing research at Kansas University and the Lawrence Public Library.

“I just went and dug to find out what I could about the history of Lawrence, how different episodes in the nation have touched the community. I started with the founding of the town, Quantrill’s Raid, the (populist) controversy at the turn of the century over currency and the gold standard, the effect of the larger wars of the nation on Lawrence, the civil rights movement, the tensions of the ’60s and ’70s …” Wilcken says.

The result of his efforts was the original, three-movement composition “Phoenix of the Plains,” which took Wilcken three months to write in the summer and fall of 2003.

The composition will be heard for the first time at 8 p.m. Saturday when Steve Eubank, the Lawrence Civic Choir’s artistic director, conducts the choir in a concert at Free State High School.

A second concert will be at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Grace Episcopal Cathedral, 701 S.W. Eighth Ave., in Topeka.

“Choral Music 1854-2004” is the theme of the choir’s spring concerts. Among the selections to be presented are compositions by Johannes Brahms, Randall Thompson, Aaron Copland and Z. Randall Stroope.

Geoffrey Wilcken practices Phoenix

But the featured work will be Wilcken’s composition. For the performance of that piece, the choir will be accompanied by flute, oboe, bassoon and cello.

Wilcken will serve as piano accompanist for the choir for other compositions at the concert.

His own composition’s first movement, from which the title of the entire work is taken, traces Lawrence’s early history and repeated attacks the city endured (such as Quantrill’s Raid in 1863).

“Remember Those,” the second movement, is a tribute to those who have sacrificed themselves for freedom and other core values for which Lawrence was founded, Wilcken says.

“Making a City,” the third movement, is an appeal for unity, urging Lawrence residents to examine their actions and values as a way to continue to shape the community into a better place to live.

Wilcken says he learned something about Lawrence in the course of his research and writing the lyrics and music for his composition.

6News video: City’s song to premiere at Free State High (04-29-05)

“I learned about the resilience of Lawrence in the face of violence, floods and natural catastrophes … and about Lawrence’s passion for a good cause,” he says.

“It’s something that I already had a sense of, as a Lawrence resident, but looking into our history brought that into a sharper focus.”