Music of Remembrance to Honor International Holocaust Remembrance Day

This month, Music of Remembrance will honor International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which coincides in 2025 with the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. On January 27th at 5:30pm, Art From Ashes emphasizes the vital musical contributions made within the walls of Nazi concentration camps, demonstrating the expansive capacity of artists to create, even in the face of insurmountable injustice. This free concert at Benaroya Hall is an annual gift to the community, featuring the outstanding artists of the MOR chamber ensemble, drawn from the Seattle Symphony, and vibrant local partners including Northwest Boychoir and Seattle Girls Choir. The program is emblematic of MOR’s mission to ensure that both the music and the lessons of the Holocaust are not lost.

“This program is intended to compel audiences not just to look back at history, but also to examine its meaning for today,” said MOR Artistic Director Mina Miller. “This year, Art From Ashes falls exactly 80 years after the largest Nazi death camp was liberated by the Soviet Army, recognizing the millions of Jews, Roma, queer and disabled people, and other innocent civilians slaughtered at the hands of the Nazi regime. While it offers a message of hope and perseverance, this somber milestone must also serve as a reminder of the repercussions of ‘othering’ in the current cultural atmosphere.”

Audiences will hear music by Erwin Schulhoff, an audaciously original voice whose music was banned as “degenerate” during the early days of the Reich, as well as cabaret-style songs that prisoners in the Terezín concentration camp dared to write and perform, often secretly under the noses of their captors. Soulful songs from Lithuania’s Vilna Ghetto will be performed alongside new arrangements constructed from actual performances by the Men’s Auschwitz Orchestra, which was forced to play the hit tunes of the day for members of the SS and their families.

“Many Holocaust survivors have given vivid accounts of the music they heard in Auschwitz,” said University of Michigan School of Music Professor Patricia Hall, who created these new arrangements based on the hundreds of pages of manuscripts she unearthed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland. “These reconstructions are as close as possible to the sounds of the original ensemble. I see it as a chance to honor the musicians who created such beauty in the worst possible conditions.”

In an especially fitting message of strength and hope, the concert ends with the finale from Jake Heggie’s Farewell, Auschwitz, an MOR commission setting the words of Auschwitz-Birkenau political prisoner Krystyna Zywulska. Her writings were circulated secretly among her fellow Auschwitz prisoners, some becoming anthems of resistance.

“The music featured in this concert comes from one of the darkest periods in human history,” said Mina Miller. “Although these composers were murdered, their music remains as witness to their extraordinary courage. We’ll never know what they could have created had they lived in a kinder world, but their sacrifice reminds us of what is at stake if we ignore our shared humanity – and challenges us to continue standing up to oppression.”

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