20261002 JOhn Berns trumpet solo at Belmont University. Prayer of St. Gregory.

Alan Hovhaness composed Prayer of St. Gregory, Op. 62b in 1946 as a short, five-minute work for trumpet and strings. [1] Origins and Background Premiere: The piece started as an intermezzo in Hovhaness's opera Etchmiadzin, which premiered in New York in October 1946. Subject: The title honors St. Gregory the Illuminator, the patron saint of the Armenian Apostolic Church who brought Christianity to Armenia in the fourth century. Inspiration: The music portrays St. Gregory's long imprisonment in a pit, reflecting a mystical, reverential, and deeply emotional prayer in darkness.