Composer Gideon Klein
At 7 PM on Thursday May 5th (Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day) at the Czech Center in New York, Hours of Freedom: The Story of the Terezín Composer, a piece that explores the plight of fifteen composers imprisoned by the Nazis at the Thereisenstadt prison camp, will receive its US premiere. The high quality of the music these figures managed to write while in the camp is inspiring. Sobering too, as they were later deported to other concentration camps to be executed. One can only imagine the wealth of creative potential wasted: virtually a whole generation of Czech composers, including Gideon Klein and Viktor Ullmann.
Hours of Freedom features soprano Arianna Zuckerman, an interpretively thoughtful and persuasive performer, baritone Philip Cutlip, and narrator Jane Arnfield. Murray Sidlin arranged the material and conducts the ensemble. The performance is free. Reservations are recommended at reservations@defiantrequiem.org with your name, address, phone number and number of tickets; or call The Defiant Requiem Foundation at 202-244-0220.
Arianna Zuckerman, soprano