Featuring

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Benjamin Northey conductor
Christopher Latham director
Leah Pisar narrator
Simon Tedeschi narrator
William Barton yidaki
Emily Sun violin
Jessica Aszodi mezzo-soprano
Edward Neeman piano
Alice Giles AM harp
Young Voices of Melbourne
Mark O'Leary OAM choir director
MSO Chorus
Warren Trevelyan-Jones chorus director

Program

Bernstein Symphony No.3 Kaddish
Elena Kats-Chernin & William Barton The Night of Broken Glass / William Cooper March*
Plus works by Schulhoff, Ullmann, Krása, Klein, Haas, Szpilman, Weiner, Bischofswerder, and Dreyfus

*World premiere

About this performance

This concert is designed to promote healing and deeper understanding of historical trauma resulting from the Holocaust, however please note that the performance contains racial slurs as well as graphic images including of deceased persons, and people in distress.

The MSO and Australian War Memorial present the commemorative concert Kaddish: A Holocaust Memorial on Thursday 31 October. This world premiere performance marks 80 years since the discovery and liberation of the first execution camps, and the deaths of the Jewish composers, musicians and artists from Theresienstadt.

Curated by the Australian War Memorial’s first musical Artist in Residence, Christopher Latham OAM, the concert is designed to promote healing and deeper understanding of historical trauma resulting from the Holocaust. It is the latest in a broader Australian War Memorial series that has included the Diggers' Requiem (2018), Vietnam Requiem (2021) and the Prisoners of War Requiem (2022).

Music is uniquely able to express the sorrow and hope of significant historical events, and this concert aims to facilitate a therapeutic journey and promote post-traumatic growth for the many who have been impacted by the Holocaust, which saw the deaths of over 12 million people including six million Jews as well as Russians, Poles and Slavs, Romani people, homosexuals, people with disability, political opponents (including communists and socialists), dissidents and anti-socials.

Composer and Festival Director, Sir Jonathan Mills AC has worked with Latham on this project. He says “seeing our very own MSO bring these stories to life on stage will represent an inflection point in humanity’s understanding of the Holocaust. The voices of those now departed will be heard – some for the first time – and I am certain this will be a most special occasion.” The MSO will also premiere a new work by Elena Kats-Chernin and William Barton honouring William Cooper, leader of the Australian Aboriginal League's protest against Kristallnacht.

The Assistant Director National Collection, Major General (Retired) Brian Dawson AM, CSC, Australian War Memorial will host a Panel Discussion on Tuesday 29 October, ahead of an Open Rehearsal of Bernstein's Kaddish Symphony. Major General Dawson says "This performance of the Kaddish: A Holocaust Memorial will be a unique occasion to remember these cataclysmic events from 80 years ago and to say never again."

Image: One Spring by Karl Bodek and Kurt Conrad Löw, courtesy of Yad Vashem

Duration: approx. 3 hours including interval