Hailed by Rome’s Il Tempo as “the destiny of the cello,” Michael Fitzpatrick’s refined yet passionate style on the acoustic and electric cellos has connected with audiences from all walks of life around the world. His intensely emotional artistry is joined with the exquisite voice of Cantor Caren Glasser at Temple Kol Tikvah, creating a meditative canvas of music from diverse traditions. “So powerful it seems almost verbalized,” the Dalai Lama said of Fitzpatrick’s music, which played a signal role in an extraordinary happening called the Compassion Rising project, in which musicians and monks from East and West descended together into Mammoth Cave in a musical dialogue commemorating the meeting of the Dalai Lama and the Catholic monk Thomas Merton three decades earlier. The meeting of the two young monks marked the beginning of an ongoing interfaith dialogue in search of a common language of wisdom and compassion.

Photograph of Michael Fitzpatrick: Susan Weingartner