Music of Remembrance

Music of Remembrance is a classical music ensemble based in Seattle whose purpose is to find and perform music composed by victims of The Holocaust, irrespective of their background, as well as to perform related newly commissioned works.

History

Music of Remembrance was founded 1998 in Seattle by Mina Miller, who is also president and artistic director, to find and perform music composed by victims of The Holocaust, irrespective of their background, as well as to perform related newly commissioned works.[1][2][3]

The company presents two concerts each year in Benaroya Hall: one in spring to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day and the other in fall for the anniversary of Kristallnacht.[2] They also give the free Sparks of Glory series of concerts with associated commentary at venues including the Seattle Art Museum and run an educational outreach program throughout Washington State.[4]

Repertoire

Music of Remembrance's first recording Art from Ashes  – volume 1 (2002) included: Serenata, written in Terezín concentration camp in 1942, the only surviving piece by Robert Dauber who died in Dachau in 1945; Five Pieces for String Quartet (1924) by Erwin Schulhoff, who died in Wülzburg in 1942, and Herman Berlinski's Flute Sonata, lost when he left Paris and reconstructed in the USA in 1942.[5]

Music specially commissioned by the company includes Camp Songs (2002) by Paul Schoenfield, five songs set to poems by Aleksander Kulisiewicz who was interned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. This piece was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003[6] and was also on their first recording.[5]

Music of Remembrance also commissioned three pieces by Jake Heggie: For a Look or A Touch (2007, for baritone and actor), about the persecution of gay men during the Holocaust;[3] Another Sunrise (2012, soprano), based on the life and work of Polish resistance member and Auschwitz survivor Krystyna Żywulska and Farewell, Auschwitz (2013, soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone), based on lyrics by Żywulska translated by Gene Scheer. Heggie incorporated these pieces into an opera in three parts, Out of Darkness (2013) with libretto by Scheer,[7] for which Music of Remembrance presented the world première May 2016 in Seattle,[8] with further performances planned for San Francisco.[9]

The company's presentations[10] also include more established music, such as Different Trains (1988) by Steve Reich, which compares his experiences of travelling by train in America with the very different experiences of being transported to a concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Europe,[11] and Verklärte Nacht (1899) by Arnold Schönberg, who recognised the Nazi danger early and emigrated to America in 1934. This was the music for the world première of Donald Byrd's dances Transfigured Night performed by Spectrum Dance Theatre.[12][13]

References

  1. ↑ Alhadeff 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Music of Remembrance". Seattle Foundation. Archived from the original on May 9, 2015.
  3. 1 2 Ginell 2008.
  4. ↑ "About". Music of Remembrance. Archived from the original on January 10, 2016.
  5. 1 2 Bramich 2003.
  6. ↑ Fischer 2010, p. 255.
  7. ↑ Lessner 2015.
  8. ↑ Serinus 2016.
  9. ↑ "OUt of Darkness (2013)". Jake Heggie. Archived from the original on January 10, 2016.
  10. ↑ "Past Seasons". Music of Remembrance. Archived from the original on February 27, 2015.
  11. ↑ Seattle Times 2013.
  12. ↑ "Fall Concert: Transfigured Night". Music of Remembrance. Archived from the original on January 17, 2016.
  13. ↑ Seattle Met 2014.

Citations:

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