FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 22, 2022
Contact: Mina Miller, Artistic Director; Steve Griggs, Administrator
(206) 365-7770
mina@musicofremembrance.org
www.musicofremembrance.org

On-demand concert “Injustice” speaks to challenges facing humanity today

 
SEATTLE, WA—On April 3, 2022, Music of Remembrance (MOR) presents Injustice, an on-demand video concert.

As today’s headlines sadly remind us, one doesn’t need to search long or far to find injustice in our own world. The injustice of racism. Of religious prejudice. Of ethnic exclusion. Of xenophobia. The injustice faced by people singled out for their sexuality. Faced by those, like the brave citizens of Ukraine, who live in mortal danger simply for living in the wrong place at the wrong time. MOR’s video concert is about the music of composers who faced up to injustice in different ways through their art, their lives and their moral example.

Three Dream Portraits, by Black American composer Margaret Bonds, is a setting of haunting poems by Langston Hughes. Kurt Weill raised his voice with songs of anti-Nazi satire and anti-apartheid protest. Hans Krása and Erwin Schulhoff were both murdered in the Holocaust, but they dared to create even in the face of unfathomable persecution. The program also showcases Aleppo, a recent work by Portuguese composer Luis Tinoco in tribute to the resilience of that city’s besieged inhabitants. This atmospheric work has powerful resonance for us now, recalling the wanton destruction of the Russian assault that foreshadowed today’s tragic events in Ukraine.

MOR’s stellar instrumental ensemble, drawn from the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, features violinists Mikhail Shmidt and Artur Girsky, violist Susan Gulkis Assadi, cellist Walter Gray, clarinetist Laura DeLuca and pianists Mina Miller and Jessica Choe. The program will also feature mezzo sopranos Sarah Larsen and Cheryse McLeod Lewis.

The concert will begin streaming on April 3 and remain available online through April 30, 2022. Access to the concert is available at https://www.musicofremembrance.org/concert/virtual-concert-injustice. $30 for one-week streaming period.

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 perseverance, courage and inspiration.

INJUSTICE

Hans Krása
 Passacaglia and Fugue (Terezin, 1944)
Mikhail Shmidt, violin Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola Walter Gray, cello

Kurt Weill
 Was bekam der Soldatens Weib?
Schickelgruber
 Lost in the Stars
Sarah Larsen and Cheryse McLeod Lewis, mezzo sopranos
Mina Miller, piano

Margaret Bonds
Three Dream Portraits (1959)
Cheryse McLeod Lewis, mezzo soprano
Mina Miller, piano

Luis Tinoco
Aleppo (2019)
United States Premiere
Mikhail Shmidt, violin Laura DeLuca, clarinet Jessica Choe, piano

Erwin Schulhoff
String Quartet no. 2 (1925)
Mikhail Shmidt and Artur Girsky, violins Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola Walter Gray, cello

Publication Date

Tue, 2022-03-22 12:00