Music of Remembrance Returns to Benaroya Hall with Music for our Time Featuring Stormy Seas premiere about child boat refugees

USA - English

• USA - English

SEATTLE, Feb. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- At a time of political tension and a pandemic that has changed our world, it's more important than ever to celebrate music that brings us together, that honors people of all backgrounds, and that elevates those who found the strength to create even in the face of persecution and had the courage to speak out against cruelty. Music of Remembrance® (MOR), a pioneer in bringing voices of musical witness to its performances, answers that call by returning to Benaroya Hall for its second live concert of the 2022 season. The program, Stormy Seas, will be on Sunday, March 13, 2022, at 5:00 pm and features the first public performance of a new work of that title by Iranian-American composer Sahba Aminikia.

Stormy Seas tells five inspiring true stories of young people who braved the peril of setting sail in search of safe shores: from Nazi Germany; from communist Cuba; from war-torn Vietnam; from Taliban-dominated Afghanistan; from an orphanage in Ivory Coast. The work is a testament to hope and courage, and an appeal to our shared humanity.

The program also explores an often-neglected Sephardic legacy featuring

• Rodas Recordada by Canadian composer Sid Robinovitch is an evocative remembrance of the community on the Aegean Island of Rhodes and its fate under Nazi occupation, and it reveals a surprising arc from that island to Seattle.
• We're led on a timeless journey with Robinovitch's poignant settings of two Ladino songs of love and loss.
• The concert also includes chamber works by three wartime Dutch composers whose lives and music deserve to be better known: Dick Kattenburg, Géza Frid and Henriette Bosmans, whose lyrical Nuit Calm will be performed by 14-year old cellist Leyna Kitahama, a recipient of the Music of Remembrance 2021 David Tonkonogui Memorial Award.

MOR's stellar ensemble is drawn from the ranks of the Seattle Symphony. Special guests include baritone José Rubio, mezzo soprano Karen Early Evans, soprano Vanessa Isiguen, guitarist Michael Partington, pianist Cristina Valdes, plus a cast of talented child actors in Stormy Seas.

Sahba Aminikia's work was inspired by the beautiful book Stormy Seas, stories of young boat refugees by Mary Beath Leatherdale and Eleanor Shakespeare. The book is available for $12.95 from the Queen Anne Book Company, whose proprietors Judy and Krijn De Jonge are this concert's generous sponsors.

Tickets and information: https://www.musicofremembrance.org/concert/concert-stormy-seas-0
Stormy Seas book: https://www.qabookco.com/book/9781554518951

About Music of Remembrance
Now in its 24th year, 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, drawing on the Holocaust's lessons to address urgent questions for our own time.

For more information, visit http://www.musicofremembrance.org and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Henriette Bosmans
Nuit Calme (1926)
Leyna Kitahama, cello, Mina Miller, piano

Dick Kattenburg
String Trio (1938)
Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola; Walter Gray, cello

Two Ladino Songs
Adio Querida
José Rubio, baritone

Alvores lloran por luvias
Karen Early Evans, mezzo soprano
Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Walter Gray, cello; Michael Partington, guitar
arranged for Music of Remembrance by Sid Robinovitch

Sid Robinovitch
Rodas Recordada (2005)
Vanessa Isiguen, soprano; Karen Early Evans, mezzo soprano; José Rubio, baritone;
Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Walter Gray, cello; Michael Partington, guitar

Géza Frid
String Trio, Op. 1 (1926)
Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola; Walter Gray, cello

Sahba Aminikia
Stormy Seas (2020)
Commissioned by Music of Remembrance
First public performance
Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Walter Gray, cello; Cristina
Valdes, piano and cast of child actors
Erich Parce, director; Peter Crompton, projection designer

Media Contact

Stacia Kirby, Kirby Communications, 206-478-5841, [email protected]

SOURCE Music of Remembrance