Past Meets Present in Music of Remembrance’s Milestone 25th Season

Monodrama about Josephine Baker Highlights Opening Concert

SEATTLE, WA— On Sunday, October 30th at 5:00 pm, Music of Remembrance returns to Benaroya Hall and launches its milestone 25^th season. The concert features a new production of Josephine, the one-act monodrama by composer Tom Cipullo based on the life of the legendary singer and dancer Josephine Baker. Baker escaped racism in America to find fame and success in France as an artist, a French Resistance hero and a civil rights activist.

 “Josephine tells a story that resonates with all of us today,” comments artistic director Mina Miller, “a story about a woman with the courage to fight back against prejudice and discrimination, and stand up for her art and ideals to make a difference in the world.” Starring soprano Laquita Mitchell in the title role, the production is directed by Erich Parce and conducted by Geoffrey Larson.

The concert also highlights the world premiere of the MOR-commissioned Wertheim Park, a setting of the poetry of Susan de Sola by composer Lori Laitman. Soprano Alisa Jordheim interprets this haunting song, a deeply moving elegy for the Dutch Jews lost to the Holocaust. In addition, the program includes chamber works by two Holocaust-era composers. Erwin Schulhoff’s virtuosic Concertino for Flute, Viola and Double Bass showcases two of the Seattle Symphony’s principal chairs, violist Susan Gulkis Assadi and flautist Demarre McGill, along with double bassist Jonathan Green. The concert opens with the elegiac Lamento for viola and piano by Dutch composer Max Vredenburg. Vredenburg sought haven in the Dutch East Indies only to endure years of captivity there under Japanese occupation; Schulhoff perished in a Nazi prison camp.

MOR’s stellar instrumental ensemble, drawn from the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, features flutist Demarre McGill, clarinetist Laura DeLuca, violinist Mikhail Shmidt, violist Susan Gulkis Assadi, cellist Walter Gray, double bassist Jonathan Green, and pianists Jessica Choe and Mina Miller.

Tickets and Information: https://www.musicofremembrance.org/concert/concert-josephine

About Music of Remembrance

Now in its 25^th year, 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, drawing on the Holocaust’s lessons to address urgent questions for our own time.

Lamento (1953)

Max Vredenburg

Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola

Jessica Choe, piano

Wertheim Park (2022)

Music by Lori Laitman Poetry by Susan de Sola

World Premiere

Commissioned by Music of Remembrance

Alisa Jordheim, soprano

 Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Jonathan Green, double bass; Mina Miller, piano

Concertino for Flute, Viola and Double Bass (1925)

Erwin Schulhoff

Demarre McGill, flute; Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola; Jonathan Green, double bass

Josephine (2016)

Music and Libretto by Tom Cipullo

A Monodrama in One Scene

Laquita Mitchell, soprano

Music of Remembrance Instrumental Ensemble

DeMarre McGill, flute; Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Walter Gray, cello;

Jessica Choe, piano

Geoffrey Larson, conductor

Erich Parce, director

Peter Crompton, media designer

Publication Date

Thu, 2022-09-15 12:00