While opera singers were sidelined during the pandemic, baritone Will Liverman made his dream album – an album dedicated to Black composers. He commissioned Shawn Okpebholo to write Two Black Church, including “The Rain,” a dark reconciliation about the horrific 2015 shootings in Charleston, S.C. With water as a recurring image, the song reveals its pain slowly and deliberately. Midway through, Liverman’s velvety voice rose to a muted falsetto as he sang “Emanuel AME Church”. The song ends with a shower of rippling piano notes that turn to lone chords, slowly rising, as if trying to keep its head above water.