World Premiere Of Michael Shapiro's “VOICES” OF THE HOLOCAUST Comes to NYC's Central Synagogue

The World Premiere of Michael Shapiro's VOICES is set to take place at New York City's famed Central Synagogue, Thursday, November 10, 2022 (652 Lexington Avenue, E. 55th Street). Tickets for the concert are free and available to the public starting Monday, September 12 by registering at the Central Synagogue website. This performance will feature Daniel Mutlu, the Senior Cantor of Central Synagogue, Ember Choral Arts, and the American Modern Ensemble, conducted by Deborah Simpkin King.

The concept for VOICES was born more than twenty years ago when Michael Shapiro served as Music Consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. After reading poetry by Sephardic victims during the Shoah, he wrote the hour-long choral and chamber ensemble as a requiem: "not solely [as] a work of remembrance, but as a warning." The composition is varied in tone and includes hints of cabaret, religious observance, and transcendent echoes that reflect the international impact of the Holocaust on Jewish people from different countries. According to Shapiro, "the composition delivers an ending that bespeaks longing for a Jewish homeland, through which the voices of those stilled by evil and tyranny will be heard."

The video broadcast from Central Synagogue will be live-streamed on its YouTube and Facebook channels, and a recording will be issued through Paumanok Records. The performance marks a creative collaboration between the internationally recognized Ember Choral Arts (formerly Schola Cantorum on Hudson), which has served the Manhattan and New Jersey areas since its founding in 1995, and the American Modern Ensemble (formed by Victoria and Robert Paterson) which spotlights contemporary music via lively programming and performs a wide repertoire, using a robust combination of instrumentalists, vocalists, and conductors.

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