Sparks of Glory: From the Monkey Mountains
Oct 1, 2011 - 12:00 pm
Artistic Director Mina Miller discusses the SAM exhibit "Our National Game" and Jackie Robinson's "athletic resistance," as a counterpoint to the artistic resistance to the Holocaust that MOR's music commemorates. Pavel Haas, one of Janáček's most talented students, wrote his String Quartet No. 2 ("From the Monkey Mountains") as a kind of musical postcard from a favorite vacation spot.
Elisa Barston, violin; Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola; Walter Gray, cello; Matthew Kocmieroski, percussion; Mina Miller, piano; Mikhail Shmidt, violin
The true story of a teenage group of boys imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp is delivered in their own words, in this reprise of the song cycle version of Lori Laitman's "Vedem"--based on poetry the boys wrote for their secret magazine. Guest vocalists Angela Niederloh, a Portland Opera mezzo soprano, and Seattle tenor Ross Hauck return to sing Laitman's work.
Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Angela Niederloh, mezzo soprano; Ross Hauck, tenor
