Music of Remembrance is a non-profit classical chamber music organization based inSeattle whose purpose is to find and perform music composed by victims ofthe Holocaust, irrespective of their background, as well as to perform related newly commissioned works.
Music of Remembrance was founded 1998 in Seattle byMina 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 inBenaroya Hall: one in spring to markHolocaust Remembrance Day and the other in fall for the anniversary ofKristallnacht.[2] They also give a freeSparks of Glory series of concerts with associated commentary at venues including theSeattle Art Museum and run an educational outreach program throughout Washington State.[4] In 2005, they established the David Tonkonogui Memorial Award for young musicians.[5] Since 2015, Music of Remembrance present a free community-wide concert at Benaroya Hall every January to markInternational Holocaust Remembrance Day and the anniversary of the liberation ofAuschwitz-Birkenau. Also since 2015, they have brought their programs to the Bay Area with an annual major concert in San Francisco.
The 2020–2021 season was disrupted by theCOVID-19 pandemic, and replaced by a series of four online concerts.[6]
Most of the performing instrumental artists are drawn from the Seattle Symphony. Seattle Symphony violinist Mikhail Shmidt, violist Susan Gulkis Assadi, and clarinetist Laura DeLuca have performed with Music of Remembrance since its founding. Flutist Zart Dambourian-Eby, violinist Natasha Bazhanov, cellist Walter Gray, pianist Jessica Choe, and double bassist Jonathan Green have made frequent appearances.
Music of Remembrance's repertoire is made up of historic pieces by composers who perished in or survived the Holocaust and contemporary commissions that share lessons of the Holocaust.
The company's first recording,Art from Ashes – volume 1 (2002), included:Serenata, written inTerezín concentration camp in 1942, the only surviving piece byRobert Dauber who died inDachau in 1945;Five Pieces for String Quartet (1924) byErwin Schulhoff, who died inWülzburg in 1942, andHerman Berlinski'sFlute Sonata, lost when he left Paris and reconstructed in the USA in 1942.[7]
Music specially commissioned by the company includesCamp Songs (2002) byPaul Schoenfield, five songs set to poems byAleksander Kulisiewicz who was interned inSachsenhausen concentration camp. This piece was one of three finalists for thePulitzer Prize for Music in 2003[8] and was also on their first recording.[7]
Music of Remembrance also commissioned three pieces byJake 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 ofPolish resistance member andAuschwitz survivorKrystyna Żywulska andFarewell, Auschwitz (2013, soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone), based on lyrics byŻywulska translated byGene Scheer. Heggie incorporated these pieces into an opera in three parts,Out of Darkness (2013) with libretto by Scheer,[9] of which Music of Remembrance presented the world première May 2016 in Seattle,[10] with further performances planned for San Francisco.[11]
The company's presentations[12] also include more established music, such asDifferent Trains (1988) bySteve 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,[13] andVerklärte Nacht (1899) byArnold Schoenberg, who recognised the Nazi danger early and emigrated to America in 1934. This was the music for the world première ofDonald Byrd's dancesTransfigured Night performed by Spectrum Dance Theatre.[14][15]
Music of Remembrance's first CD was on theInnova label. Since then, they have recorded several CDs forNaxos.
| Year | Title | Record label |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Art From Ashes | Innova |
| 2004 | Letter to Warsaw | Naxos |
| 2006 | Brundibár | Naxos |
| 2008 | For a Look or a Touch | Naxos |
| 2009 | Camp Songs & Ghetto Songs | Naxos |
| 2011 | Vedem | Naxos |
| 2014 | Out of Darkness | Naxos |
| 2016 | After Life | Naxos |
| 2020 | The Parting | Naxos |
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2008 | Unsilenced |
| 2010 | The Boys of Terezín[17] |
| 2015 | Out of Darkness |
| 2018 | Hear Our Story Now |
Music of Remembrance commissions Holocaust-inspired works[18] by living composers to build a bridge between Holocaust musicians and a new generation of artists and audiences. These new works are intended to embrace the Holocaust’s legacy of spiritual resistance through music, and of communicating this legacy to audiences in today’s world.
| World première | Title | Composer | Description | Instrumentation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | A Vanished World | David Stock | A snapshot of the pre-war world of East European Jewry, living on the edge of the abyss. | Flute, viola, harp |
| 2002 | Camp Songs | Paul Schoenfield | Musical setting of five poems written inSachsenhausen concentration camp compiled by Aleksander Kulisiewicz. | Mezzo-soprano, baritone, clarinet, violin, cello, double bass, piano |
| 2003 | Fathers | Lori Laitman | Musical setting of Holocaust related poems byAnne Ranasinghe and David Vogel that focus on father-child relationships. | Baritone, violin, cello, piano |
| 2004 | Letters to Warsaw | Thomas Pasatieri | Musical setting of six texts by Pola Braun written in theWarsaw Ghetto andMajdanek concentration camp. | Soprano, piano |
| 2005 | The Seed of a Dream | Lori Laitman | Musical setting of poems from theVilna Ghetto byAbraham Sutzkever. | Mezzo-soprano, cello, piano |
| 2005 | In Memoriam | Gerard Schwarz | A musical tribute to cellist David Tonkonogui, a teacher of Schwarz’s son Julian. | Solo cello, string quartet |
| 2007 | For a Look or a Touch | Jake Heggie | Duet between actor and singer based on the journal of Manfred Lewin written for his loverGad Beck, who tells his story inParagraph 175 (film). | Actor, baritone, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano |
| 2008 | Ghetto Songs | Paul Schoenfield | Based on the poetry in a notebook ofMordechai Gebirtig. | Soprano, baritone, clarinet, violin, cello, double bass, piano |
| 2008 | Rudolf and Jeanette | Gerard Schwarz | A musical tribute to Schwarz’s maternal grandparents, Rudolf and Jeanette Weiss, who were murdered at a concentration camp inRiga, Latvia. | Flute, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, horn, 2 violins, viola, 2 cellos, double bass, piano, harp, celesta |
| 2008 | Mayn Shvester Khaye | David Stock | Arrangement of the song by Israeli singerChava Alberstein based on the poem written by Pole Binem Heller for his sister, who died inTreblinka extermination camp. | Mezzo-soprano, clarinet, string quartet |
| 2009 | Pictures from the Private Collection of God | Aharon Harlap | Song cycle based on the poetry of Yaakov Barzilai, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor. | Mezzo-soprano, baritone, oboe, string quartet |
| 2010 | Vedem | Lori Laitman | Based on the story of boys atTerezín publishing a clandestine journalVedem. | Boychoir, mezzo-soprano, tenor, clarinet, violín, cello, piano |
| 2011 | Kolo't ("Voices") | Betty Olivero | Based on the history of Sephardic settlement atThessaloniki and an anonymous poem from a resident who survivedAuschwitz concentration camp. | Mezzo soprano, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, harp, percussion |
| 2012 | Another Sunrise | Jake Heggie | Song cycle based on the life of writerKrystyna Zywulska from an interview inBarbara Engelking's bookHolocaust and Memory. | Soprano, clarinet, violin, cello, double bass, piano |
| 2013 | For a Look or a Touch (song cycle) | Jake Heggie | Based on the journal of Manfred Lewin written for his lover Gad Beck, who tells his story in the film Paragraph 175. | Actor, baritone, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano |
| 2013 | Farewell, Auschwitz | Jake Heggie | Based onWiazanka z Effektenkammer by lyricistKrystyna Zywulska written in Auschwitz. | Soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, clarinet, violín, cello, double bass, piano |
| 2014 | In Sleep the World is Yours | Lori Laitman | Song cycle based on the poetry ofSelma Meerbaum-Eisinger who died at 18 in a Nazi labor camp. | Soprano, oboe, piano |
| 2014 | The Yellow Ticket (arrangement) | Alicia Svigals | Film score for 1918 silent movieDer Gelbe Schein based on Abraham Schomer’s melodramaAfn Yam un “Ellis Island” and Aleksandr Amfiteatrow’s novelThe Yellow Pass. | Violin, clarinet, piano |
| 2015 | After Life | Tom Cipullo | Chamber opera based on an imagined reunion of the ghosts ofGertrude Stein andPablo Picasso as they discuss culpability of artists in WWII occupied France. | Soprano, mezzo-soprano, bass, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano |
| 2016 | Out of Darkness | Jake Heggie | A two-act opera. Act one, “Krystyna,” tells the story of poetKrystyna Zywulska in Auschwitz. Act two, “Gad,” imagines the renunion of homosexuals Gad Beck and Manfred Lewin torn apart under Nazi rule in Berlin. | 2 sopranos, mezzo-soprano, baritone, actor/baritone, flute, clarinet (Bb and A), violín, cello, double bass, piano |
| 2017 | Wilderness Mute | Keiko Fujiie | Song cycle based on eye-witness accounts ofAtomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. | Soprano, baritone, clarinet, violin, cello, double bass |
| 2017 | to open myself, to scream | Mary Kouyoumdjian | Multi-media work inspired by the life of Roma painter and writerCeija Stojka who survived three concentration camps. | Clarinet, bass clarinet, trumpet, violin, cello, double bass, recording, click track, projection |
| 2017 | Snow Falls | Ryuichi Sakamoto | Text from a poem by Kiyoko Nagase about a mother visited by the ghost of her son lost in the atomic bombing with melodies from the film score toNagasaki: Memories of My Son. | Narrator, violin, piano |
| 2018 | Gaman | Christophe Chagnard | Multi-media work based on the diaries of Takuichi Fujii andKamekichi Tokita from their WWII incarceration at Minidoka Relocation Center. | Soprano, baritone, clarinet/bass clarinet, string quartet, fue (Japanese flute), taiko drum |
| 2019 | The Parting | Tom Cipullo | Chamber opera based on the life and work of Hungarian poetMiklós Radnóti set on his last night with wife Fanni before his WWII conscription. | Soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano |
| 2019 | Veritas | Shinji Eshima | Multi-media work with media projections by Kate Duhamel based onVandalized Doors series by sculptor Al Farrow. | Cello, double bass, projection |
| 2019 | Passage | Ryuichi Sakamoto | Narrated poem by Kareem Lotfy with string quartet about anArab Spring refugee. | Narrator, string quartet |
| 2020 | Stormy Seas | Sahba Aminikia | Musical portraits of 5 true stories of child boat refugees. Based on the book of the same name by Mary Beth Leatherdale and Eleanor Shakespeare. | 5 child singers, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano |
| 2021 | Return to Amasia | Eric Hachikian | Based on a grandson of theArmenian genocide searching for his roots. | String quartet |
| 2022 | Tres Minutos | Nicolas Lell Benavides | Chamber opera inspired by a real program that reunites families separated by immigration policies at the U.S. – Mexico border, but only for three minutes. | Soprano, tenor, baritone, clarinet, violín, cello, double bass, piano |
| World première | Title | Choreographer | Composer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | The Wind | Donald Byrd | Franz Schreker |
| 2010 | The Dybbuk Suite | Donald Byrd | Joel Engel |
| 2013 | Zeks Yiddishe Lider un Tantz | Pat Hon | Betty Olivero |
| 2014 | Tap Dance | Donald Byrd | Dick Kattenburg |
| 2014 | Transfigured Night | Donald Byrd | Arnold Schoenberg |
| 2015 | La Revue de Cuisine | Olivier Wevers | Bohuslav Martinů[19] |
| 2017 | Lullaby & Doina | Olivier Wevers | Osvaldo Golijov[20] |
In 2005, Music of Remembrance established the David Tonkonogui Memorial Award in memory of cellist David Tonkonogui (1958–2003).[5][21] This is open to young musicians from the Seattle area who wish to perform music with a connection to the Holocaust. As well as a monetary award for continuing musical study, recipients are invited to perform at a Music of Remembrance concert.[5]
| Year | Name | Instrument |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Julian Schwarz | cello |
| 2006 | Jocelyn Chang | violin |
| 2008 | Marie Rossano | violin |
| 2012 | Benjamin Shmidt | cello |
| 2013 | Takumi Taguchi | violin |
| 2016 | Evan Johanson | violin |
| 2018 | Kina Pak | cello |
| 2019 | Sophie Denhard | double bass |
| 2019 | Zoe Lonsinger | violin |
| 2020 | Julin Cheung | flute |
| 2021 | Leyna Kitahama | cello |
| 2021 | Tokuji Miyasaka | violin |
| 2022 | Seohyun Hwang | violin |
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