
Julius P. Williams Composes Song for 54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial Rededication The Boston Children's Chorus will perform the song, Heroes, at the rededication ceremony on June 1.
By
Colette Greenstein
May 12, 2022
Professor Julius P. Williams
Image by Dave Green
Julius P. Williams, a professor in Berklee College of Music's Composition Department, has written an original song that will be performed by the Boston Children's Chorus at the National Rededication of the Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial. The ceremony will take place on Wednesday, June 1, at 11:00 a.m. in front of the memorial, on Boston Common, opposite the Massachusetts State House. The event is free and open to the public.
In addition to his role as professor, Williams is the artistic director and conductor of the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra, a composer in residence with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and cover to maestro Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra. In 2019, the award-winning conductor was named the first African American president of the Conductors Guild, a global membership organization encompassing conductors of symphony, opera, ballet, choral, band, contemporary, and chamber ensembles. And in 2020, Williams was one of three Berklee professors commissioned to write music for the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Residence Composer Project.
On behalf of the Partnership to Renew the Shaw 54th Memorial, I want to say how thrilled we are with Heroes, the composition that Julius Williams created for our national rededication of the memorial. It is stirring, powerful, and will be a perfect piece to set the stage for the ceremony, said Elizabeth Vizza, president, Friends of the Public Garden. We not only are celebrating the restoration of this memorial but are using the occasion as a call to action in the ongoing work of social justice and racial equity. We couldnt be happier with Williams's piece to dramatize this moment and inspire us to this cause.
The Partnership to Renew the Shaw 54th Memorial, made up of the National Park Service, the City of Boston, Friends of the Public Garden, and the Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket, oversaw the 18-month restoration. The memorial honors the courageous efforts of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the men of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, one of the first enlisted units of Black men fighting in the American Civil War, for their service and heroism.
I am honored and humbled to write a work that is so important to our history, said Williams. A regiment of African Americans who joined the army to fight for their right to exist as free people and demonstrated immense valor and bravery that can never be forgotten must always be commemorated.
During the course of his career, Williams has composed operas, symphonies, and chorus works for stage, concert hall, film, and television. The Bronx-born conductor and pianist has recorded 10 albums, and performed with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra of Croatia, the Costa del Sol Music Festival in Spain, and the Volvodanksa Symphony of Serbia.
Related Categories
News
Most Popular
From left to right: Berklee President Erica Muhl; honorees Chuck Rainey, Lalah Hathaway, and James Newton Howard; and Berklee Provost Larry Simpson
Image by Mike Spencer
Berklee Honors Ringo Starr, Lalah Hathaway, James Newton Howard, and Chuck Rainey at Commencement The entertainment legends received honorary doctorates for their immeasurable impact on music, film and television, and popular culture.
Latest
Zitong (Selina) Zhang
Image courtesy of the artist
Can You Write an Uplifting Song About the Climate Crisis? Student Zitong (Selina) Zhang talks about the inspiration behind her new song Life, a meditation on climate change and its impact on our world.
Berklee City Music students on stage at the Berklee Performance Center
Image by Dave Green
Berklee City Music Receives Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts The $25,000 award will support City Music's High School Academy and Preparatory Academy programs.
Professor Julius P. Williams
Image by Dave Green
Julius P. Williams Composes Song for 54th Massachusetts Regiment Memorial Rededication The Boston Children's Chorus will perform the song, Heroes, at the rededication ceremony on June 1.
Read All
Subscribe The latest sounds, stories, and ideas, sent to your inbox weekly.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
Mediagenix Showcases Semantic Intelligence-Powered Title Management, Schedule Op...
01/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/04/2026
Victoria Mon t Brings the Multi-Hyphenate Mindset to Career Jam 2026 The Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and producer shared how versatility and self-inves...
01/04/2026
T Bluey ag teacht go RT ! Beginning on Monday 6 April 2026, Bluey will be available as Gaeilge on RT KIDSjr and RT Player. Children will be able to connect w...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
31/03/2026
MeyerPro delivered the LED production for the Microsoft Ignite 2025 keynote at Chase Center in San Francisco, using more than 2,700 ROE Visual panels across mul...
31/03/2026
The Media Coding Industry Forum (MC-IF) is expanding membership outreach in 2026...
31/03/2026
ViewLift and MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) have announced the launch of ViewLift Conversational AI Search on the MyOutdoorTV platform. The feature enables natural language...
31/03/2026
The Atlanta Braves and Gray Media have announced a multi-year agreement to simul...
31/03/2026
Gravity Media has delivered broadcast services for TAB Golden Slipper Day at Rosehill Gardens on March 21 and will now cover The Star Championships at Royal Ran...
31/03/2026
Synamedia has announced that Mileto Tecnologia, a Brazilian pay-TV operator, has selected the Synamedia Go platform for its OTT expansion. Mileto is also deploy...
31/03/2026
KMH Integration will attend NAB Show in Las Vegas with a focus on what the company calls AV Casting - an approach built on the idea that professional AV and bro...
31/03/2026
Prime Video will carry live coverage of the first and second rounds of the 2026 Masters Tournament, beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, April 9 and Friday, A...
31/03/2026
The NHL and its U.S. and Canadian broadcast partners have announced a collaborat...
31/03/2026
Daktronics has partnered with Wake Forest to manufacture and install a new end z...
31/03/2026
The National Football League has announced that Las Vegas will host Super Bowl LXIII in 2029 at Allegiant Stadium. The announcement was made at the NFL Annual M...
31/03/2026
The NFL has announced a partnership with TMRW Sports to develop and operate a professional flag football league for women and men. The league will launch with i...
31/03/2026
Sennheiser's Spectera wideband bidirectional wireless system was used by bot...
31/03/2026
Sports Studio Inc., the company behind Free Live Sports, has announced the formation of an Advisory Board with five media and technology executives.
Each of o...
31/03/2026
PSSI and Appear have announced a new phase in their collaboration, with PSSI deploying Appear's X Platform to upgrade its mobile fleet and PSSI Internationa...
31/03/2026
As sports media organization continue to seek out new ways to streamline their p...
31/03/2026
With two new expansion teams and viewership/attendance on the rise, the league's production/broadcast arm and its partner NEP Connected Solutions are busier...
31/03/2026
Spotify has evolved from a streaming platform to an interactive, multiformat eco...
31/03/2026
Lastest New Universal Synthesizer System module announced
Make Noise Music have recently announced the launch of the latest addition to their New Universal ...
31/03/2026
True Stereo DynIR Engine, Virtual Load Shaper & more
Two notes Audio Engineering's Captor X reactive load box and cabinet simulator has built up a solid...
31/03/2026
By Kiera Williams
Every year, a new group of emerging media and entertainment professionals steps into the HPA community - curious, talented, and ready to grow...
31/03/2026
MELBOURNE, Fla., March 31, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) will release its first quarter 2026 financial results before the market opens on Thursday, A...
31/03/2026
Photo courtesy of NASA. An illustration shows NASA's Perseverance rover operating on the surface of Mars....
31/03/2026
L3Harris Technologies and Comtech Telecommunications Corp. have collaborated to introduce the next evolution in resilient multi-orbit capability for today's...
31/03/2026
Rebel Sport leads ad investment as brands compete for a large, active and qualit...
31/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
31/03/2026
CueScript, a leading international developer of professional teleprompting solutions, is enhancing its platform with three innovations that elevate flexibility,...
31/03/2026
#GALSNGEAR will host a series of meetups, panel discussions, and networking events during the 2026 NAB Show, taking place April 18 22 in Las Vegas.
The organi...
31/03/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show (April 19-22, Las Vegas Convention Center, Booth #N1328), Imagine Communications is introducing AI assisted scheduling capabilities within ...
31/03/2026
High-density upgrade for mobile fleet and PSSI International Teleport gives PSSI more flexibility for premium live event coverage
PSSI and Appear today announc...
31/03/2026
Solid State Logic Enhances Virtualized System T Platform to Deliver Scalable Clo...
31/03/2026
OWC to Showcase Storage, Workflow Acceleration, and Reliability Solutions for Cr...
31/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
31/03/2026
OpenDrives, a leader in software-defined video and rich media storage management solutions, will demonstrate several new innovations at the 2026 NAB Show in Apr...
31/03/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show, SDVI will demonstrate how its Rally media supply chain management platform continues to give media operations teams the tools they need to...
31/03/2026
Boland Communications today announced that at the 2026 NAB Show, it will introduce its new QD4K315HDR10, a 31.5-inch QD-OLED monitor delivering exceptional colo...
31/03/2026
Dr. Paul Tapper, CEO of NUGEN Audio, will lead an essential industry discussion at the 2026 NAB Show, examining whether dialog intelligibility is poised to beco...
31/03/2026
BCNEXXT will use NAB 2026 to focus on how broadcasters can turn today's operational and market pressures into opportunity. Meeting with customers in the IAB...
31/03/2026
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, will showcase its latest innovations at th...