Sparks of Glory
MOR's Musical Witness Series
in partnership with the Seattle Asian Art Museum
Free thanks to funding from Chamber Music America and the National Endowment for the Arts*

Sparks of Glory is so popular, we’ve found a larger venue for our performances.

Join us in the Seattle Asian Art Museum’s Stimson Auditorium (directions | Map of area) on four Saturday afternoons during the 2007-08 season to hear "some of the region's best artists" (Seattle Times) perform new and rarely played works drawn from MOR mainstage performances.

Along with the music, Mina Miller -- MOR artistic director, concert pianist, and authority on artists' and musicians' spiritual resistance during the Holocaust -- shares her insights on each piece, and passion for preserving this precious cultural legacy through performance. Audience members love the combination: "Ms. Miller's warmth, knowledge, and creativity add another dimension to this already rich program."

Each concert-with-commentary lasts 90 minutes, from 2:30-4:00 p.m. Performance dates are Saturdays, September 29, 2007, and January 19, March 15, and April 12, 2008. Sparks of Glory is free, and open to the public. Free parking is available at the museum.

Directions to SAAM | Map of area

Aflame!

Nazi ideology fanned the fires of hatred for years before the Third Reich. Book burnings and the poetry of Hungarian Holocaust-survivor Yaakov Barzilai fuel the intense song cycle “Letters Weeping In Fire,” along with music from Terezín, the “model” concentration camp used in Nazi propaganda. Works by Hans Krása, Aharon Harlap, and Erwin Schulhoff. Free to the public.

Hans Krása: Dance for String Trio (1943)

Aharon Harlap: "Letters Weeping in Fire" (2003)

Erwin Schulhoff: Five Pieces for String Quartet (1923)

Morgan Smith, baritone; Mina Miller, piano; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Leonid Keylin, violin; Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola; Mara Finkelstein cello

Legacy

The Terezín concentration camp was used in Nazi propaganda to deceive the world about conditions in the camps. While nearly all of Terezín’s prisoners were eventually transported to death camps, Terezín was a remarkable center of spiritual resistance through artistic creation. Works by two Terezín inmates, the Czech composers Hans Krása and Pavel Haas, are highlighted, with Haas’ Four Songs on Chinese Poetry complementing SAAM’s extensive Chinese art collection. Also, from Israeli composer Betty Olivero, a klezmer suite originally written as musical accompaniment for the silent film The Golem.

Hans Krása: Three Songs

Pavel Haas: Four Songs on Chinese Poetry, Terezin 1944

Betty Olivero: Zeks Yiddishe Lider un Tantz from The Golem (1997)

Erich Parce, baritone; Mina Miller, piano; Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Leonid Keylin, violin; Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola; Mara Finkelstein, cello

Forbidden!

For a Look or a Touch, MOR’s 2007 commission from acclaimed American opera composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, receives a much-demanded second Seattle performance. Declared an instant “masterpiece” by the Seattle P-I, the work is based on the true story of two young, gay German lovers tragically separated by the Nazis. Baritone Morgan Smith performs with actor Julian Patrick.

Jake Heggie: For a Look or a Touch

Morgan Smith, baritone; Julian Patrick, actor; Mina Miller, piano; Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Zart Dombourian-Eby, flute; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Page Smith, cello

Timeless

Timeless works from Terezín make up the program, with scenes from Hans Krása’s beloved children’s opera Brundibár as the centerpiece. Cast with children inmates, Brundibár had 55 performances in Terezín. These excerpts, featuring some of Seattle’s top young vocalists and directed by Erich Parce, use the new English adaptation by Tony Kushner. A young cellist named Robert Dauber (1922-45) played in Brundibár’s orchestra; hear one of his compositions and one by Czech composer Gideon Klein (just 23 years old when he came to Terezín).

Gideon Klein: Duo for Violin and Cello (1941)

Robert Dauber: Serenata (1942) (Terezin)

Hans Krasa: Scenes from Brundibar: A Children’s Opera (Terezin 1943) English language adaptation by Tony Kushner

Ross Hauck, Megan Chenovick, Malya Muth, Michael Drumheller, Signe Mortensen, Cliff Watson: vocalists; Mina Miller, piano; Julian Schwarz, cello; Jocelyn Chang, violin (winners of the DTMA 2005 and 2006)

*Funds for this residency have been provided by Chamber Music America with support from The Helen F. Whitaker Fund and the Chamber Music America Residency Endowment Fund, and from the National Endowment for the Arts. Music of Remembrance is a member of Chamber Music America.