The OU School of Music and The Schusterman Center for Judaic and Israel Studies are teaming up to present “Amsterdam to Auschwitz: Jewish Composers Persecuted by the Nazi’s” at 7 p.m. on Nov. 9 in Pitman Recital Hall of Catlett Music Center.
The concert focuses on the works of five Dutch Jewish composers who were persecuted by the Nazis.
Alan Levenson, program director for the Schusterman Center for Judaic and Israel Studies, said the focus on the Dutch Jewish composers is due to the fact that Holland was “among the most hard hit” during the Holocaust.
“Holland was conquered by the Nazi’s in 1940. It was a very small country, very flat country, very difficult to hide and it was under Nazi control for a long time, until 1945,” Levenson said. “Something like 90 percent of all the Jews in Holland were murdered, which for Western Europe is a very high percentage.”
Associate professor of the school of music and guest performer Joel Burcham hopes audience members will be educated during the concert.
“The composers we are featuring on this concert are also lesser known composers so I hope the audience takes away some new music or new names of composers they never listened to before,” he said. “I hope the audience feels more educated and appreciative of the music and the people that we’re talking about tonight and what they went through.”
Although the concert will discuss heavy subject matter, the music itself will carry a variety of tones.
“Even though the subject matter we’re talking about is heavy, not all of the music is heavy. So I think there will be a diverse tone,” Burcham said.
As for the Nov. 9 date, Levenson said it marks the anniversary of Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass in Germany 1938. “We’re commemorating the anniversary of basically a nationwide terror campaign against the Jewish community of Germany,” Levenson said.
This is the fourth event that both the school of music and Schusterman Center for Judaic and Israel Studies collaborated on together.
“Music is a very good way into modern Jewish culture generally so I think it’s a natural thing to investigate,” Levenson said.
The event is free to the public.
