Music of Remembrance's Mission
Music of Remembrance fills a unique role throughout the world by remembering the Holocaust through music. With concert performances, educational programs, recordings, and commissions of new works by some of today’s leading composers, MOR honors those of all backgrounds who found the strength to create even in the face of persecution, and those who had the courage to speak out against cruelty. We tell stories that communicate urgent moral lessons for today with a scope that extends beyond the Holocaust itself to the experience of others who have been excluded or persecuted for their faith, ethnicity, gender or sexuality.
“I am honored to be associated with an organization that puts action behind a very important idea. Words and music matter. They have the power to change hearts, which is harder than changing minds.” – Laura Strickling, soprano in MOR commission The Parting
“Being part of MOR has made me more compassionate for other people who are oppressed or struggling in this day.” – violinist Zoe Lonsinger
“Music of Remembrance does what our most beloved cultural institutions always aspire to do when they preserve the voices of the past, or when they commission and midwife brand new works based on timeless themes. They educate us and inspire us. And oh how they inspire in concerts filled with beauty, passion, meaning, justice, heartbreak, comfort, and joy.” – composer Tom Cipullo
“Music of Remembrance has highlighted the reality that in the end we really are like a grove of aspen trees. We all share a common root network and if one tree is sick we all feel the effects. We’re not just learning about what happened. We’re learning about how we can grow as human beings.” –librettist Gene Scheer
Upcoming Events
Oct 30, 2022 - 5:00 PM
Jan 22, 2023 - 12:00 PM
Mar 19, 2023 - 5:00 PM

May 21, 2023 - 4:00 PM

May 24, 2023 - 7:30 PM
May 27, 2023 - 7:30 PM
May 28, 2023 - 3:00 PM
Past Programs
Community Partner Activities
Commissions
2022
- Nicolas Lell BenavidesTres minutos
Soprano, tenor, baritone, clarinet, violín, cello, double bass, piano
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.
2021
- Eric HachikianReturn to Amasia
String quartet
Based on a grandson of the Armenian Genocide searching for his roots.
2020
- Sahba AminikiaStormy Seas
5 child singers, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano
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.
2019
- Tom CipulloThe Parting
Soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano
Chamber opera based on the life and work of Hungarian poet Miklós Radnóti set on his last night with wife Fanni before his WWII conscription.
- Ryuichi SakamotoPassage
Narrator, string quartet
Narrated poem by Kareem Lotfy with string quartet about an Arab Spring refugee.
- Shinji EshimaVeritas
Cello, double bass, projection
Multi-media work with media projections by Kate Duhamel based on Vandalized Doors series by sculptor Al Farrow.
2018
- Christophe ChagnardGaman
Soprano, baritone, clarinet/bass clarinet, string quartet, fue (Japanese flute), taiko drum
Multi-media work based on the diaries of Takuichi Fujii and Kamekichi Tokita from their WWII incarceration at Minidoka Relocation Center.
2017
- Choreography for Lullaby & Doina
- Mary Kouyoumdjianto open myself, to scream
Clarinet, bass clarinet, trumpet, violin, cello, double bass, recording, click track, projection
Multi-media work inspired by the life of Roma painter and writer Ceija Stojka who survived three concentration camps.
- Keiko FujiieWilderness Mute
Soprano, baritone, clarinet, violin, cello, double bass
Song cycle based on eye-witness accounts of Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
- Ryuichi SakamotoSnow Falls
Narrator, violin, piano
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 to Nagasaki: Memories of My Son.
2016
- Jake HeggieOut of Darkness
2 sopranos, mezzo-soprano, baritone, actor/baritone, flute, clarinet (Bb and A), violín, cello, double bass, piano
A two-act opera. Act one, “Krystyna,” tells the story of poet Krystyna Zywulska in Auschwitz. Act two, “Gad,” imagines the renunion of homosexuals Gad Beck and Manfred Lewin torn apart under Nazi rule in Berlin.
2015
- Choreography for La Revue de Cuisine
- Tom CipulloAfter Life
Soprano, mezzo-soprano, bass, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano
Chamber opera based on an imagined reunion of the ghosts of Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso as they discuss culpability of artists in WWII occupied France.
2014
- Choreography for Arnold Schoenberg's Transfigured Night
- Choreography for Dick Kattenburg's Tap Dance
- Lori LaitmanIn Sleep The World Is Yours
Soprano, oboe, piano
Song cycle based on the poetry of Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger who died at 18 in a Nazi labor camp.
- Alicia SvigalsThe Yellow Ticket (arrangement)
Violin, clarinet, piano
Film score for 1918 silent movie Der Gelbe Schein based on Abraham Schomer’s melodrama Afn Yam un “Ellis Island” and Aleksandr Amfiteatrow’s novel The Yellow Pass.
2013
- Jake HeggieFarewell, Auschwitz
Soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, clarinet, violín, cello, double bass, piano
Based on Wiazanka z Effektenkammer by lyricist Krystyna Zywulska written in Auschwitz.
- Jake HeggieFor a Look or a Touch (Song Cycle)
Actor, baritone, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano
Based on the journal of Manfred Lewin written for his lover Gad Beck, who tells his story in the film Paragraph 175.
- Pat HonDestination Unknown (2013), choreography for Zeks Yiddishe Lider un Tantz from The Golem by Betty Olivero
2012
- Jake HeggieAnother Sunrise
Soprano, clarinet, violin, cello, double bass, piano
Song cycle based on the life of writer Krystyna Zywulska from an interview in Barbara Engelking's book Holocaust and Memory.
2011
- Betty OliveroKolo’t (“Voices”)
Mezzo soprano, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, harp, percussion
Based on the history of Sephardic settlement at Thessaloniki and an anonymous poem from a resident who survived Auschwitz concentration camp.
2010
- Choreography for Joel Engel's The Dybbuk Suite
- Lori LaitmanVedem
Boychoir, mezzo-soprano, tenor, clarinet, violín, cello, piano
Based on the story of boys at Terezín publishing a clandestine journal Vedem.
2009
- Aharon HarlapPictures from the Private Collection of God (arrangement)
Mezzo-soprano, baritone, oboe, string quartet
Song cycle based on the poetry of Yaakov Barzilai, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor.
2008
- Choreography for Franz Schreker's The Wind
- Paul SchoenfieldGhetto Songs
Soprano, baritone, clarinet, violin, cello, double bass, piano
Based on the poetry in a notebook of Mordechai Gebirtig.
- David StockMayn Shvester Khaye
Mezzo-soprano, clarinet, string quartet
Arrangement of the song by Israeli singer Chava Alberstein based on the poem written by Pole Binem Heller for his sister, who died in Treblinka extermination camp.
- Gerard SchwarzRudolf and Jeanette
Flute, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, horn, 2 violins, viola, 2 cellos, double bass, piano, harp, celesta
A musical tribute to Schwarz’s maternal grandparents, Rudolf and Jeanette Weiss, who were murdered at a concentration camp in Riga, Latvia.
2007
- Jake HeggieFor a Look or a Touch
Actor, baritone, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano
Duet between actor and singer based on the journal of Manfred Lewin written for his lover Gad Beck, who tells his story in Paragraph 175 (film).
2005
- Lori LaitmanThe Seed of Dream
Mezzo-soprano, cello, piano
Musical setting of poems from the Vilna Ghetto by Abraham Sutzkever.
- Gerard SchwarzIn Memoriam
Solo cello, string quartet
A musical tribute to cellist David Tonkonogui, a teacher of Schwarz’s son Julian.
2004
- Thomas PasatieriLetter to Warsaw
Soprano, piano
Musical setting of six texts by Pola Braun written in the Warsaw Ghetto and Majdanek concentration camp.
2003
- Lori LaitmanFathers
Baritone, violin, cello, piano
Musical setting of Holocaust related poems by Anne Ranasinghe and David Vogel that focus on father-child relationships.
2002
- Paul SchoenfieldCamp Songs
Mezzo-soprano, baritone, clarinet, violin, cello, double bass, piano
Musical setting of five poems written in Sachsenhausen concentration camp compiled by Aleksander Kulisiewicz.
2000
- David StockA Vanished World
Flute, viola, harp
A snapshot of the pre-war world of East European Jewry, living on the edge of the abyss.