The Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College will present the 2016 Holocaust Memorial Lecture on Monday, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m., in the Redfern Arts Center’s Alumni Recital Hall.
“Voices of Terezin: Music and Witness” will feature music written by composers who were prisoners at Terezin, 50 miles north of Prague, near the German border. During World War II, it was the site of a concentration camp where leading Jewish artists and educators were imprisoned and later sent to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.
In the first part of the program, guest soprano Megan McCauley of the University of Kentucky and KSC faculty pianist Matthew Odell will perform Hölderlin-Lieder by Viktor Ullmann and Seven Songs in a Folk Style, Op. 18, by Pavel Haas. Later, they will be joined by KSC faculty guitarist José Lezcano and Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music violist Mike Kelley for a performance of children’s songs from Terezin, composed by Ilse Weber.
The performance will be accompanied by readings and images of art works by children in Terezín, in a multimedia presentation curated by McCauley. The event also will feature a tribute to Ela Stein Weissberger, one of the few survivors of Terezin.
For more information on the series, contact Michele Kuiawa at mkuiawa@keene.edu or Joseph Darby at jdarby@keene.edu.