Playing for Our Lives: Terezin as a Composer鈥檚 Inspiration
An online discussion with Cantor Gerald Cohen and performance by Cassatt String Quartet
Cantor Gerald Cohen, composer and assistant professor in the H. L. Miller Cantorial School, will speak about his composition, Playing for Our Lives, written as a tribute to the music and musicians of the Terezin concentration camp. The acclaimed Cassatt String Quartet, for whom Playing for our lives was composed, perform the composition.
The music contained in the texture of Cohen鈥檚 quartet includes the Yiddish folk song Beryozkele; an excerpt from the children鈥檚 opera Brundibar; and the “Dies Irae” from Verdi鈥檚 Requiem. Brundibar was performed more than 50 times at Terezin by the children there, while Verdi’s Requiem鈥攚hich was probably performed both as speaking to their own danger of death, and as an act of subtle defiance to the Nazis鈥攚as sung by a determined group of prisoners led by the dynamic conductor Rafael Schachter. Cohen discusses how these pieces鈥攁nd his wish to commemorate those who bravely continued to make art while imprisoned and in danger of death鈥攊nspired him and are woven together to create this musical memorial.
Dr. David Kraemer, Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian and professor of Talmud and Rabbinics, 91快播, served as moderator.
This concert and discussion were made possible by the support of The Phyllis and Stanley Sanders Holocaust and Anti-Semitism Collection fund.
This series was co-sponsored by The 91快播 Library and the .
About Cantor Gerald Cohen
Composer has been praised by Gramophone Magazine for his “linguistic fluidity and melodic gift,” creating music that “reveals a very personal modernism that鈥ffers great emotional rewards.” His opera, Steal a Pencil for Me, based on a true concentration camp love story, had its world premiere production by Opera Colorado in January 2018. Cohen鈥檚 operas Sarah and Hagar, based on the story from the book of Genesis, and Seed, a one-act opera about love and choices for a post-apocalyptic couple, have been performed in concert form. Cohen is a noted synagogue cantor and baritone; his experience as a singer informs his dramatic, lyrical compositions. Recent instrumental compositions include Voyagers, a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the launch of Voyager spacecraft, which had its premiere at New York鈥檚 Hayden Planetarium; and Playing for our lives, a tribute to the music and musicians of the WWII Terezin concentration camp near Prague.
Recognition of Cohen鈥檚 body of work includes the Copland House Borromeo String Quartet Award and Hoff-Barthelson/Copland House commission, Westchester Prize for New Work, American Composers Forum Faith Partners residency, Zamir Choral Foundation鈥檚 Hallel V鈥橺imrah award, and Cantors Assembly鈥檚 Max Wohlberg Award for distinguished achievement in the field of Jewish composition. Cohen received the Yale University鈥檚 Sudler Prize for outstanding achievement in the creative arts, and has been awarded commissioning grants from Meet the Composer, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and Westchester Arts Council. He received a BA in music from Yale University and a DMA in composition from Columbia University. He is cantor at Shaarei Tikvah, Scarsdale, NY, and is on the faculties of the H. L. Miller Cantorial School of 91快播 and of Hebrew Union College. Cohen鈥檚 compositions are available by contacting him through his ; he also has works published by Oxford University Press, G. Schirmer/AMP and Transcontinental Music Publications.
About the Cassatt String Quartet
Acclaimed as one of America’s outstanding ensembles, the Manhattan-based Cassatt String Quartet has performed throughout North America, Europe, and the Far East. The Cassatt鈥檚 numerous awards include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the USArtists International, Chamber Music America, CMA/ASCAP, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Meet the Composer, and the Amphion, Copland, Fromm and Alice M. Ditson Music Foundations. Since 1995, the ensemble has been on the performing artist roster for the New York State Council on the Arts.
With a deep commitment to nurturing young musicians, the Cassatt has offered classes for composers and performers at the American Academy, Rome; the Toho School, Tokyo; Bowdoin International Music Festival; Columbia; Cornell; Princeton; Syracuse Universities, and the University of Pennsylvania. The quartet is in residence annually at Maine’s Seal Bay Festival of American Contemporary Chamber Music and Cassatt in the Basin! in Texas.
Named for the celebrated impressionist painter Mary Cassatt, the quartet consists of Muneko Otani, violin; Jennifer Leshnower, violin; Ah Ling Neu, viola; and Elizabeth Anderson, cello.
