Sparks of Glory: Until When
Mar 7, 2015 - 12:00 pm
Free to the public.
On February 12, SAM showcased one of the most exquisite collections of Native American art in private hands: Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection. The exhibit’s artifacts and tribal art challenged us to confront questions of how cultures maintain their identities and traditions, especially when faced by existential threat. These challenges also suffused MOR’s concert on March 7th, 2015. The Nazi assault destroyed the vibrant and distinctive communal life that had long characterized Jewish Europe. Our musical program featured works by two American and two Israeli composers whose work touch on the emotional struggle of loss and destruction, and the renewal of self and community. Israeli composer Eugene Levitas' song cycle Until When? sets five compelling verses by the Hungarian poet and Holocaust survivor Yaakov Barzilai. Barzilai survived the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where his father and grandfather were murdered, and he has dedicated his life to communicating the lessons of the Holocaust through poetry. Marc Lavry’s Suite Concertante exemplifies the distinctive Israeli style that the composer helped establish after escaping to Palestine from Nazi-controlled Europe. American composer Lori Laitman’s song cycle Todesfuge, is a setting of the famous writer Paul Celan’s hauntingly vivid poem recalling the horrors he saw. David Stock’s A Vanished World, commissioned by Music of Remembrance, offers a nostalgic reminiscence of shtetl life in pre-war Eastern Europe.
Concert Program:
Marc Lavry
Suite Concertante for Flute, Viola & Harp, Op. 348
Zart Dombourian-Eby, flute; Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola & Valerie Muzzolini, harp
Eugene Levitas
Until When?
Karen Early Evans, soprano; Walter Gray, cello; Mina Miller, piano; Erich Parce, narrator
Lori Laitman
Todesfuge
Erich Parce, baritone; Walter Gray, cello
David Stock
A Vanished World (commissioned by Music of Remembrance)
Zart Dombourian-Eby, flute; Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola & Valerie Muzzolini, harp
Click here to view the Until When concert flyer.
At our Sparks of Glory outreach series, MOR greets loyal friends and meets new audience members as we perform beyond the concert hall, in communities around Seattle. At these 90-minute concerts-with-commentary, Mina Miller―MOR artistic director, pianist, and international speaker on musicians’ resistance during the Holocaust―shares her insights on each piece and her passion for preserving this precious cultural legacy through performance and education. Thanks to our donors and the NEA, MOR's musical witness outreach series, Sparks of Glory, has been presented free to the public since our 2005-06 season.
