Press release from Classical Communications:
Saturday, June 1 in Asheville, NC
at US Cellular Center
Thomas Wolfe AuditoriumDefiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín
Complete live performance of Verdi’s Requiem, interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration tells the moving story of courageous performances by prisoners in a WWII concentration camp.
Praised by The New York Times as “Poignant…a monument to the courage of one man to foster hope among prisoners with little other solace,” Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín will be performed in Asheville, NC at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium (87 Haywood St.) on Saturday, June 1, 2019 at 7:30 pm. Complete details below.
The “extraordinarily beautiful and moving” concert/drama commemorates the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during World War II who performed Verdi’s Requiem 16 times, as an act of defiance and resistance to their Nazi captors. Defiant Requiem is a complete live performance of Verdi’s Requiem interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration that tells this tale of audacious bravery.
Kym Verhovshek, a Weaverville resident, has been working with The Defiant Requiem Foundation and Carolina Jews for Justice to bring this program to Asheville. Kym’s father, George Baum, now a retired journalist, was one of the 15,000 children who were imprisoned in Terezín during World War II. To honor his legacy, Kym has been working with CJJ and other local groups and individuals to raise the funds needed for this program.
In the words of Ms. Verhovshek, “The story of Defiant Requiem is universal. As the daughter of a holocaust survivor and the mother of a 5-year-old boy, I am the bridge between my father’s legacy and my son’s future. It is through music and conversation that I am driven to make a difference.”
Led by Maestro Murry Sidlin, president of The Defiant Requiem Foundation and creator of this powerful concert/drama, Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín features the Asheville Symphony, Voices of Terezín Remembrance (a chorus comprised of singers from the Asheville Symphony Chorus, Asheville Choral Society, and other community members), and soloists Jennifer Check (soprano), Ann McMahon-Quintero (mezzo-soprano), Bruce Sledge (tenor), and Jongmin Park (bass).
Ticketing information and more for Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín is available in the calendar listing below.
Murry Sidlin and The Defiant Requiem Foundation also produced an Emmy-nominated documentary film narrated by Bebe Neuwirth that has been praised as a “gripping documentary” (Examiner.com), with “a very powerful message” (CNN). More information is at DefiantRequiem.org.
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