The exquisite sounds of numerous violins will echo throughout our Main Sanctuary, their power brought back to life by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in memory of the Holocaust refugees and survivors who saved the precious instruments during their darkest hours.
Join us and be moved by the extraordinary melodies that still resonate from a violin played by an inmate member of the Auschwitz Orchestra; another by one of the last Jews to escape Nazi Europe; an instrument that a young Italian Jew clung to in a forced labor camp; Klezmer violins emblazoned with Stars of David, in performances of:
Intonations
Inspired by James Grymes’s book Violins of Hope, this powerful new song cycle captures the voices and stories of the musician survivors calling out across the generations, from darkness and despair to the harmony of hope.
Kate Aldrich, mezzo-soprano
Vadim Gluzman, violin soloist
Fiona Khuong–Huu, youth violin soloist
Music by Jake Heggie, composer of chamber music, orchestral works and operas, including Dead Man Walking and Moby-Dick. Libretto by Gene Scheer, author of operas, oratorios and lyric dramas.
Violin Concerto in E Minor
One of most important early Romantic composers, Felix Mendelssohn was erased by the Nazis, his work banned and his contribution to music disparaged because he was born Jewish. His Violin Concerto in E minor is considered the jewel of German violin concertos.
The Grammy-winning Orpheus Chamber has recorded over 70 albums, toured 46 countries across four continents and collaborated with hundreds of world-class soloists.
An Israeli violinist, Vadim Gluzman is among today’s leading classical musicians and has performed with the world’s leading orchestras.
One of the world’s most accomplished vocalists, American Mezzo-Soprano Kate Aldrich appears with leading opera companies such as the Metropolitan Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, San Francisco Opera and Arena di Verona.
The Violins of Hope have traveled the world… Now they’re coming to New York City!
Friday, January 21: Friday Night Around NYC
Thursday, January 27: Opening Exhibition & Performance
Thursday, March 24: The Concert
(The exhibition will run until Sunday, April 3)
In the late 1980s, a customer entered the shop of Amnon Weinstein, a young Tel Aviv violin maker, asking for his old instrument to be restored. When Weinstein opened the case, he found ashes coating the bow: The customer had survived Auschwitz because the Germans had assigned him to the death camp orchestra that played as prisoners were herded from cattle cars to gas chambers. The man hadn't played it since.
Weinstein was thunderstruck. Hundreds of his own relatives — grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins — had died in the Holocaust. To handle one of those instruments was too much. "I could not. I could not," he says.
Finally, he did . . . and then began restoring other violins that survived:
● One carried out of Dachau when its owner was liberated.
● Another thrown from a death train by a French musician crying out, “Where I’m headed, I won’t need this.”
● The Brender instrument that traveled with a Romanian prodigy through a hard labor camp and then into woods, where he fought with Jewish partisans.
● Several belonged to musicians who smuggled them out of Germany when they escaped and ultimately played them in the Palestine Orchestra.
Over the past two decades, dozens of these extraordinary instruments that embody the harshest moments in Jewish history have been refurbished, restrung and brought back to life by Amnon and his son Avshalom. They tell a tale of torment and endurance, of the power of music and the importance of memory. They are our Jewish story.
Made possible by the generous support of Temple Emanu-El members Robert B. Menschel and Richard Menschel.
PROOF OF VACCINATION IS REQUIRED TO ENTER THE VENUE - MASKS REQUIRED AT ALL TIMES.