Colburn School's RECOVERED VOICES Performances Feature Works by Composers Whose Legacies and Lives Were Destroyed by the Nazi Regime

The Colburn School's Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices, a unique Colburn resource that encourages greater awareness and more frequent performances of music by composers whose careers and lives were destroyed by the Nazi regime, brings important repertory back to life through four upcoming performances that feature the works of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Arnold Schoenberg, Franz Schreker, Alexander von Zemlinsky, and Herbert Zipper.

James Conlon, the Artistic Director of the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices at the Colburn School, has long championed works by these composers and by so doing has drawn deserved attention to composers whose names and works had very nearly been eliminated from history.

On April 12, 2023 at 7 p.m. at Colburn School's Zipper Hall, the Colburn Orchestra will perform works by three Austrian composers, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Arnold Schoenberg, and Franz Schreker. Korngold and Schoenberg were both exiled following the rise of the Nazi Party and settled in Los Angeles. Schoenberg was a composer known for his radical musical experimentation that broke the traditional tonality of western music and created his own system of composition that dramatically impacted the future of classical music. The program includes Korngold's Much Ado About Nothing, Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1, and Schreker's Chamber Symphony.

Korngold was a child genius composer, a true "wünderkind," who is considered one of the godfathers of the Hollywood sound. While exiled in Los Angeles, he composed some of the most influential film scores that embody the golden age of Hollywood. His incidental music for Much Ado About Nothing was a smash success upon its premiere in Europe, and the Colburn Orchestra will be performing this composition in its rarely heard original form for chamber orchestra. Although written for a play, the shimmering sounds of the big screen are anticipated in this joyous work.

Franz Schreker was directly inspired by his friend Arnold Schoenberg's "Kammersymphonie" and wrote his own. Schreker in his heyday had popularity that rivaled Richard Strauss, and the beautiful sound worlds created in his work are a unique blend of different aesthetic styles ranging from impressionism, late romanticism, and early modernism. His highly emotive "Kammersymphonie" is emblematic of his expressive compositional style. When the Nazis came into power, Schreker's career and life were immediately disrupted and compromised. He suffered a stroke allegedly from the stress of the horrible situation and died in 1934, and the further posthumous suppression of his compositions relegated him to undeserved obscurity.

This same program will be performed at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at UC Davis on April 10, 2023, in addition to a second program on April 11, 2023, of Alexander von Zemlinsky's Maiblumen Blühten Überall for Voice and String Sextet, Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht for String Sextet, and Korngold's String Sextet. Both programs begin at 7:30 p.m.

Zemlinsky was a Viennese composer, conductor, and teacher who was friends with Schoenberg and Mahler. His musical compositions combined late romanticism with modernism and he was an important teacher whose pupils included Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Hans Krasá, and Alban Berg. Following the Anschluss, Zemlinsky fled Vienna and died in New York in 1942. The Nazi suppression of his life and music contributed to a lack of recognition for his important compositional contributions to the classical canon. Maestro Conlon has been a long time champion of the music and life of Zemlinsky and has helped bring him out of obscurity.

More information about Recovered Voices at the Mondavi Center is available here.

On April 16, 2023, at 2 p.m., Colburn School musicians will be joined by singer Madeleine Lyon from LA Opera's Young Artist Program in a performance of Herbert Zipper's Dachau Lied (Dachau Song), as part of the Yom HaShoah Commemoration at Holocaust Museum LA.

Zipper was a Holocaust survivor, conductor, composer, and advocate for arts education who was an ideological forefather of the Colburn School. He composed his Dachau Lied in September of 1938 with poet Jura Soyfer who wrote the lyrics while interned at the Dachau concentration camp. The song through oral tradition remained at Dachau and spread also to other concentration camps as a song of resistance. This will be a world premiere arrangement for quartet and voice arranged by a cellist and Colburn student Olivia Marckx and based on the original sheet music for the work available in the Zipper Archive at the Colburn School.

To learn more about Holocaust Museum LA's Yom HaShoah Commemoration, please click here.

Recovered Voices at The Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at UC Davis

Tickets available here

April 10, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

Chamber Orchestra Program

Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Much Ado About Nothing Suite for Chamber Orchestra

Arnold Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1

Franz Schreker: Chamber Symphony

April 11, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.

Chamber Music Ensemble Program

Alexander von Zemlinsky: Maiblumen Blühten Überall for Voice and String Sextet

Arnold Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht for String Sextet

Erich Wolfgang Korngold: String Sextet

Recovered Voices at Colburn School's Zipper Hall

Tickets available here

April 12, 2023 at 7 p.m.

Colburn Orchestra

Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Much Ado About Nothing Suite for Chamber Orchestra

Arnold Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1

Franz Schreker: Chamber Symphony

Yom HaShoah Commemoration at Holocaust Museum LA

April 16 2023 at 2 p.m.

Free; RSVP here

Program includes:

Jeffrey Abrams, Regional Director, ADL Los Angeles

Rabbi Karen Fox

Helen Isaacson, 2G

Consul General of Israel Dr. Hillel Newman

Rachel Schwartz, Holocaust survivor

Carolyn Siegel and Aaron Aftergood, 3G

Dachau Lied (Dachau Song), by Holocaust survivor Herbert Zipper, performed by musicians from The Colburn School

The Partisan song led by Holocaust survivors David Lenga and Henry Slucki

A performing arts institution located in the heart of Los Angeles, the Colburn School trains students from beginners to those about to embark on professional careers. The academic units of the School provide a complete spectrum of music and dance education united by a single philosophy: that all who desire to study music or dance should have access to top-level instruction.

• The diploma- and degree-granting Conservatory of Music is distinguished by a unique all-scholarship model, renowned faculty, and outstanding performance opportunities. It prepares the very highest level of collegiate musicians for professional careers.

• The Music Academy is a highly selective training program for gifted young pre-collegiate musicians, designed to prepare students for conservatory study and performing careers at the highest levels of achievement. This program offers residential options and balances performance, musical instruction, and academics.

• The Community School of Performing Arts welcomes students of all ages, from seven months old to adults. It offers over 120 classes each year in orchestral instruments, piano, guitar, voice, jazz, music theory, drama, and ensembles including orchestra, choir, and chamber music.

• The Trudl Zipper Dance Institute develops performers of all levels, from aspiring professionals in the Dance Academy to beginners starting in Youth Dance. Students of all levels receive training in ballet, tap, musical theater, and modern genres as part of a comprehensive dance education.

• Created to serve all units of the School, the Center for Innovation and Community Impact empowers the musical and dance leaders of tomorrow by nurturing students' passion and ability to serve their communities, preparing them for sustainable careers, and embracing the development of new ideas. The Center embodies Colburn's commitment to developing young artists with the curiosity, skills, and commitment to make a difference in their field.

Each year, more than 2,000 students from around the world come to Colburn to benefit from the renowned faculty, exceptional facilities, and focus on excellence that unites the community.

The Colburn Center, designed by Frank Gehry, is a 100,000 square-foot campus expansion expected to break ground in 2023 and to open in the fall of 2025. Located across the street from the School's existing campus at the intersection of Olive and Second Streets, the Colburn Center will enable the School to expand its mission of presenting programs for the public. Gehry's design includes Terri and Jerry Kohl Hall, a 1,000-seat in-the-round concert hall, four professional-sized dance studios, and a 100-seat flexible studio theater.

Learn more at www.colburnschool.edu.

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