Music of Remembrance - Remembering Holocaust Musicians

2008-09 Concert Season
Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall

The Golem (Silent Film with Music by Betty Olivero.

Spring Concert: May 11, 2009
World premiere by Betty Olivero (MOR Commission)

Poignant World Premiere from Jake Heggie
Sings Out on New MOR CD

MOR's latest CD, For a Look or a Touch, presents the world premiere of the MOR commission from hot young American opera composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer - "a sharply poignant, deeply affecting work" (Seattle Times). Based on the true story of two gay teenagers the Holocaust tore apart forever, the dramatic song cycle summons up both Berlin's wild cabaret night-life and brutal Nazi horrors, while making a desperate, poignant plea for remembrance.

Released on Naxos, the world's leading classical music label, MOR's recording also includes In Memoriam, by the Seattle Symphony's Gerard Schwarz - a beautifully meditative, elegiac piece for cello and string quartet, in honor of cellist David Tonkonogui (1958-2003).

And from acclaimed American art song composer Lori Laitman comes The Seed of Dream. The song cycle illuminates the grief, misery, and unbending resistance in each classical line of poetry by Abraham Sutzkever, written during his time in, and after his escape from, the Vilna Ghetto.

MOR Brundibár CD Makes Opera News Top 10!
Naxos Unveils Ela Stein Weissberger Interview

Funded by the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences

MOR’s Brundibár recording on Naxos had critics singing its praises, and now the January issue of Opera News has called it one of the top ten opera recordings of 2007.

In coordination with MOR, Naxos has created a podcast interview with Ela Stein Weissberger, who survived the Terezín concentration camp. She played the role of the Cat in the original performances of Brundibár there. Her perspective on the creation and first performances of this historical opera is poignant, stirring, first-person history. To listen, click here. (To learn more about or buy the book I Never Saw Another Butterfly mentioned in the interview, click here.

If you order our Brundibár CD online at Amazon, a percentage of your purchase will go to support MOR. You can also support MOR by buying it from us and including a contribution to our non-profit organization. For more about the CD, click here.

MOR's First Tour: Jake Heggie's Holocaust Song Cycle Comes To California

This December, The Broad Stage, Santa Monica College’s new, state-of-the-art theater and concert hall, will present MOR Jake Heggie's Holocaust performing the California premiere of For a Look or a Touch, by one of the hottest young American composers working, Jake Heggie, and his librettist Gene Scheer. (Heggie will appear for a Meet the Composer pre-concert interview.) The one-night-only event on Thursday, December 4, 2008, stars baritone Morgan Smith and former Seattle Opera Ring Alberich, Julian Patrick, in an acting role. Also on the program: selections from MOR's wide repertoire, with Holocaust-era works by Schulhoff and Dauber, and contemporary Israeli composer Betty Olivero's Golem Suite. You can find more details here.

Mina Miller: Founder & Artistic Director

Through music, Music of Remembrance strives to broaden everyone's understanding of the Holocaust's many dimensions...

News and Reviews

Music of Remembrance is actively seeking a full-time Development Specialist!

For more details about this unique full-time employment opportunity, click here.