Founded by President and Artistic Director Mina Miller in 1998, Music of Remembrance (MOR) is a Seattle-based chamber music organization.

Since our inaugural year, MOR has presented two mainstage concert programs annually at Seattle's Benaroya Hall, marking the anniversary of Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) each fall, and Holocaust Remembrance Day each spring.

Introduced by Mina Miller, these mainstage programs combine serious vocal and chamber music with works in popular cabaret and traditional folk styles. Music from the Holocaust era is balanced with contemporary, Holocaust-inspired compositions.

In our first decade, we presented nine commissioned premieres of Holocaust-inspired works and seventeen world premieres, and produced four CDs. In December 2008, MOR toured to Los Angeles, presenting the California premiere of our commission by composer Jake Heggie, For a Look or a Touch.

Sparks of Glory, MOR's musical witness outreach series, is presented free to the public each season, and attracts an audience largely new to chamber music and this musical legacy. Thanks to our commitment to rediscovering forgotten works by Holocaust-era musicians and to performing contemporary pieces and commissions, Sparks of Glory has been funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and Chamber Music America. These 90-minute concerts-with-commentary form the heart of MOR's educational outreach program, which reaches almost 2,000 high school and college students annually in the greater Seattle area.

Our Mission

Music of Remembrance fills a unique spiritual and cultural role in Seattle and throughout the world by remembering Holocaust musicians and their art through musical performances, educational activities, musical recordings, and commissions of new works.

It is well known that the Nazi regime banned performances of music by living and historical Jewish composers, and by many others they deemed degenerate. But there were courageous musicians who dared to create even in the ghettos and camps. It is a priceless gift that much of this music has survived as moral and artistic defiance in the face of catastrophe. We must ensure that these voices of musical witness be heard.

The Music of Remembrance mission is not religious, nor is its scope limited to Jewish music. Although the Holocaust was an assault on Jewish people and culture, others suffered as well in what was history's most potent instance of totalitarian suppression of intellectual and creative work. Musicians' resistance took many forms, and crossed many national and religious boundaries. This resistance cannot have been in vain. We must remember these musicians by preserving and performing their music. From the depths of human suffering comes the healing beauty of hope and renewal.