Media Contact:
Mina Miller, Artistic Director
Ph: (206) 365-7770
Email: info@musicofremembrance.org
UNSILENCED: A Decade of Musical Witness Spotlights MOR's American Voices on the Holocaust
SEATTLE, WA—May 4, 2009—Music of Remembrance (MOR) presents the world premiere screening of the documentary UNSILENCED at 6 p.m. on June 14. John Sharify created the film, which casts light not only on the way MOR rediscovers Holocaust-era music, but on its path-breaking work commissioning new music from some of today's leading composers. Producer Sharify, a six-time winner of the coveted National Edward R. Murrow Award, wrote the film and narrates.
Former KOMO anchorman Eric Slocum will introduce the screening of the 40-minute documentary chronicling the events and accomplishments of MOR's first decade, followed by a Q&A with the Seattle Symphony's Gerard Schwarz, producer Sharify, and MOR Artistic Director Mina Miller. The free screening will be held at the Museum of History and Industry (2700 24th Ave. E), which has free parking.
The documentary covers the founding of MOR in 1998, by concert pianist Mina Miller, and explores its mission to ensure that the musical witnesses to the Holocaust are heard. MOR's musical repertoire is made up of works by musicians whose compositions the Nazis labeled "degenerate" and were imprisoned, often killed. Due to that censorship and the Holocaust's colossal cultural disruption, their music has often only recently been rediscovered.
Relying on the help and advice of a small group of visionaries, Miller decided to tell their stories as these musicians would have wanted--through performance (and recordings) of their work. Seattle Symphony conductor Gerard Schwarz was an early, passionate supporter, telling Miller to bring MOR downtown to Benaroya Hall--a leap of faith for such a small, young organization.
But MOR also works to build bridges to the past, through the commissioning of new works that draw on personal Holocaust histories. Acclaimed American opera composer Jake Heggie wrote For a Look or a Touch (2007) for MOR to tell the true story of two gay teenage lovers the Nazis separated forever. Lori Laitman's The Seed of Dream (2004) is based on the poetry of Vilna Ghetto survivor Abraham Sutzkever, while Thomas Pasatieri's Letter to Warsaw (2003) conveys the firsthand experiences of poet/cabaret artist Pola Braun in the Warsaw Ghetto.
American composer Paul Schoenfield has written two works for MOR: Camp Songs (original Polish version 2002/English version 2004), which was a Pulitzer Finalist, and most recently, Ghetto Songs (2008). David Stock has contributed A Vanished World (2000), a tribute to pre-War shtetl life. Seattle Symphony conductor Gerard Schwarz has picked up the composer's pen twice, to warm praise, with In Memoriam (2005), and Rudolf and Jeanette (2007), dedicated to his grandparents, killed in the Holocaust.
A decade later, with over a dozen world premieres, six U.S. premieres, and four recordings, MOR has become one of Seattle's leading musical organizations, with press clips from the Los Angeles Times to Opera News--and more commissions are on the way.
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About Music of Remembrance
Music of Remembrance (MOR) fills a unique spiritual and cultural role in Seattle and throughout the United States by remembering Holocaust musicians and their art through musical performances, educational activities, musical recordings and commissions of new works. Since its 1998-99 inaugural year, MOR has presented two major concerts annually at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, marking the anniversary of Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) each fall and Holocaust Remembrance Day each spring.
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John Sharify, producer, writer, and narrator of UNSILENCED, is familiar to Seattle audiences from delivering his signature stories for KOMO 4 TV News for nearly 18 years. A multiple Emmy-award-winning broadcaster, Sharify is currently the General Manager of Seattle Community Colleges Television. Sharify was the recipient of the 2008 National Edward R. Murrow Award recognizing him as the top news writer in the country, and was honored with the National Edward R. Murrow Award in writing in 2007 and 2004 as well. A graduate of Princeton University, he also has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Film Directing from Columbia University.