FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2018
Contact: Mina Miller
(206) 365-7770 | info@musicofremembrance.org

MOR Launches 20^th Anniversary Season

Varied program features landmarks from its two decades of musical witness

SEATTLE, Wash.— Since its founding in 1998, Music of Remembrance (MOR) has remembered the Holocaust through music, bringing over 200 works to Benaroya Hall and other stages. In addition to rescuing many historic works from undeserved obscurity, it has commissioned over 30 new works that remember the Holocaust and honor those who stood up in the face of injustice and persecution. MOR celebrates this legacy with a 20^th Birthday Gala Concert on Sunday, November 4 at 4:00 p.m. at the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall. Tickets are $55 and available at www.benaroyahall.org

The anniversary concert includes highlights from MOR’s varied repertoire of Holocaust-era music, and unforgettable moments from some of the most impactful new works that MOR has brought into the world: Tom Cipullo’s award-winning chamber opera After Life, imagining a confrontation between the ghosts of Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso; Jake Heggie’s haunting opera Out of Darkness, exploring the meaning and emotional costs of survival; Lori Laitman’s oratorio Vedem, inspired by a true story of teenage concentration camp prisoners who dared to create a clandestine journal under their captors’ noses; Paul Schoenfield’s searing Camp Songs with its bitterly ironic mockery of conditions in Sachsenhausen. The Northwest Boychoir returns with Yiddish songs that Viktor Ullmann arranged in Terezín. Members of Spectrum Dance Theater reprise brilliant dances that choreographer Donald Byrd created for The Dybbuk.

Music of Remembrance’s stellar chamber ensemble, drawn from the ranks of the Seattle Symphony, is reunited in this program with many of the leading soloists who introduced MOR world premieres. After the concert, the musical celebration continues with a 20^th Birthday Gala Dinner Party in the Norcliffe Founders Room.

While retaining its core focus on remembering the Holocaust through music, MOR has evolved over its 20 years in the kinds of stories it tells and how it tells them. “When we search for meaning in the unspeakable tragedy that was the Holocaust,” said artistic director Mina Miller, “we’re looking not just back in history, but also at the lessons that are important in making a better world for today and the future. We’ve recognized how the world has changed, and we’ve tried to grow to reflect those changes. We’re constantly seeking new ways of giving voice – through music – to those who speak out against persecution and exclusion of people in today’s world.”

About Music of Remembrance: MOR remembers the Holocaust through music and honors the resilience of all people excluded or persecuted for their faith, nationality, ethnicity, gender or sexuality. In addition to rediscovering and performing music from the Holocaust, MOR has commissioned and premiered more than 30 new works by some of today’s leading composers, telling stories of loss, courage and inspiration.

Single Tickets: $55
Online Orders: www.musicofremembrance.org or www.benaroyahall.org

Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall in Benaroya Hall, Seattle

4:00 p.m. Sunday, November 4, 2018

Program

Pavel Haas, String Quartet, No. 2, Op. 7, movement 4 (1925)

From the Monkey Mountains

Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Natasha Bazhanov, violin; Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola; Walter Gray, cello;

Matthew Kocmieroski, percussion

Lori Laitman, “Memories of Prague,” Vedem (2010) – MOR commission

Karen Early Evans, soprano; Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mina Miller, piano

Paul Schoenfield, “Black Boehm,” Camp Songs (2002) - MOR commission

Erich Parce, baritone

Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Walter Gray, cello; Jonathan Green, double bass; Jessica Choe, piano

Viktor Ullmann, Choral Arrangements of Yiddish Songs (Terezin, 1942)

The Northwest Boychoir, Joseph Crnko Music Director

Joel Engel, The Dybbuk Suite, Op. 35 (1922)

Donald Byrd Choreography | Spectrum Dance Theater – MOR commission

Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Natasha Bazhanov, violin; Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola; Walter Gray, cello; Jonathan Green, double bass; Matthew Kocmieroski, percussion

Tom Cipullo, After Life (2015), excerpts – MOR commission

Robert Orth Picasso

Karen Early Evans Gertrude Stein

Ava Pine The Youth

Erich Parce, Director

Zart Dombourian-Eby, flute; Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Walter Gray, cello;

 Jessica Choe, piano

Jake Heggie, “Farewell, Auschwitz,” Out of Darkness (2016) – MOR commission

Karen Early Evans & Ava Pine, soprano; Julia Benzinger, mezzo soprano; Robert Orth & Erich Parce, baritone

Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Walter Gray, cello;

Jonathan Green, double bass; Mina Miller, piano

Publication Date

Tue, 2018-08-28 12:00