Seattle-based performing arts organization Music of Remembrance has built a reputation as the creative catalyst for “testimonies for tomorrow” – persuasive works that explore the consequences of intolerance toward the other. As music journalist Thomas May writes, “MOR has proved to be ahead of its time in grappling with issues of social justice and persecution. Commissions in recent years have become, alarmingly, more and more topical.” Those recent premieres have included works addressing the separation of families at the US-Mexico border, the worldwide refugee crisis, and the threat of nuclear war.
“We’ve taken an increasingly broad view of what our mission calls on us to do,” said Music of Remembrance Artistic Director Mina Miller. “At our founding, we were one of very few groups to focus on music by Holocaust-era composers who had been silenced. It has been heartening to see others answer the call to rescue these composers’ music from undeserved obscurity. As interest in this repertoire has grown, it’s allowed us to focus on commissioning works that address the Holocaust’s lessons in new ways.”
The Seattle Times recognizes this vital contribution, noting that, “Through its commissions, MOR has increasingly underscored the relevance of the past to present-day threats to human rights.” The organization’s commitment to addressing both timeless and contemporary themes has led to collaborations with more than 20 living composers, including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tom Cipullo, Lori Laitman, Mary Kouyoumdjian, and Paul Schoenfield, whose MOR commission Camp Songs was a finalist for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in Music.
In the 2023/24 season, MOR spotlights the lived experiences and creative traditions of Indigenous artists, delivers a powerful musical statement about the current women’s rights struggle in Iran, and traces the reverberating effects of cultural vandalism in a three-city tour of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s new opera. This season’s premieres bring the organization’s total commissions to 45 new works, including song cycles, chamber works, operas, film scores, and choreography – all using art to confront compelling issues in today’s world.
Left: storyteller Gene Tagaban // Right: glass sculptor Preston Singletary
Between Worlds
October 29, 2023 • Benaroya Hall in Seattle
The centerpiece of this concert will be the world premiere of MOR commission Raven in the Box of Daylight, a multimedia piece integrating performances by improvisatory violinist Swil Kanim, a member of the Lummi Nation, and Cherokee and Tlingit storyteller Gene Tagaban with filmed sculpture by renowned Tlingit glass artist Preston Singletary. Raven legends have been passed down for centuries among many tribes in the Pacific Northwest, and Singletary’s work is widely recognized for its juxtaposition of Tlingit traditional designs with glass, as well as his use of music to shape his contemporary viewpoint of Native culture.
“The artistic perspective of Indigenous people reflects a unique and vital language,” said Singletary, whose glasswork subverts the notion that Native artists are inherently best when working with traditional materials and forms. “I advocate on behalf of all Indigenous people –affirming that we are still here – and that we are declaring who we are through our art in connection to our culture.”
Northwest Boychoir
Art From Ashes
January 22, 2024 • Benaroya Hall in Seattle
As Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture recently noted, Music of Remembrance “exemplifies the power of music to help advance human rights and reaches into communities with cultural humility and artistic purpose.” Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, MOR joins forces with three vibrant community organizations – the University of Washington Chamber Orchestra, Northwest Boychoir, and Seattle Girls Choir – in a free concert honoring the millions whose lives were taken. The program also features three recipients of MOR’s annual David Tonkonogui Memorial Award, which nurtures young musicians who seek to address issues of human rights through their art.
“I am the child of parents whose entire families were annihilated in the Holocaust, so I grew up with a visceral awareness of the power of memory — of the stories that need to be told,” Artistic Director Mina Miller told The Seattle Times. “It’s one thing to read headlines and quite another to realize there are real people behind these stories, with real emotions and real lives.”
Left: composer Sahba Aminikia // Right: choreographer Donald Byrd
Phoenix
March 10, 2024 • Benaroya Hall in Seattle
Iranian American composer-librettist team Sahba Aminikia and Zara Houshmand have created a powerful musical statement about the current women’s rights struggle in Iran, scored for voices representing three generations of Iranian women. These voices share the challenges that have demanded their courage and the deep cultural history underlying the current uprising. The work’s creators believe that, like the Phoenix – or Qaqnus, as it is known in Iranian mythology – the future for people in Iran will be created via their own transformation and rebirth through fire.
“Many people believe the current struggle in Iran is only for women,” said composer Sahba Aminikia. “But we must not segregate the cry for freedom. In the existing societal structure, men are also pressed into forms and shapes that do not fit them. Oppressed people must shout together, louder and more vividly so that our shared struggle cannot be ignored. I believe the result will be a more open and accepting society for everyone.”
Another creature of legend inspires the evening’s second world premiere: a new dance work by Black choreographer Donald Byrd, using music by leading Israeli composer Betty Olivero to tell the story of The Golem. Originally created to accompany a revival of the classic 1920 expressionist silent film by Paul Wegener, the music, like the film, blurs the lines of memory and fantasy. In medieval Jewish legend, a Golem was a creature made of clay into which life has been injected by mystical means. It has fascinated many generations as a complex metaphor for the struggle to survive during times of persecution.
“This legend, in all its different versions, was well known to me, and I had always wanted to write music for it,” said composer Betty Olivero. “I was so attracted by Wegener’s silent movie that I decided that this would be the perfect realization of my dream. The body movement of the actors, the exaggerated expressions, the over-acting – all so characteristic of the silent movie acting style – seemed to me like a ballet that needed music.”
Composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer
Before It All Goes Dark
May 19-26, 2024 • Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago
This new one-act opera by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer is based on a compelling true story first reported by Howard Reich in the Chicago Tribune. Mac, a disabled Vietnam veteran, learns that he is the heir to a priceless art collection, stolen by the Nazis from an ancestor he didn’t know he had. Challenging audiences to consider the unexpected ways that historical events affect later generations, the piece explores the complicated relationship between art and identity, as well as the question of who truly “owns” works of art. Starring bass-baritone Ryan McKinny and mezzo Megan Marino, the world premiere tour kicks off with a performance in Seattle’s Benaroya Hall on May 19, 2024, and continues to San Francisco’s Presidio Theatre on May 22, 2024, before concluding with two performances at Chicago’s Studebaker Theater in collaboration with Chicago Opera Theater.
“When Howard Reich told me Mac’s story, I immediately felt a shiver of recognition,” said composer Jake Heggie. “The story is bursting with surprising influences, soaring vocalism, and remarkable intimacy. It is a very specific American story, yet universal, for we are all in some way heirs to the tragedy of the Holocaust.”
Between Worlds
Sunday, October 29, 2023 @ 5:30 pm
World Premiere: Raven in the Box of Daylight
with Swil Kanim, violin; Gene Tagaban, storyteller/dancer; Preston Singletary, artist. Plus works by Gerard Schwarz, Jerod I. Tate, Paul Ben Haim, Géza Frid, and Osvaldo Golijov with choreographer Olivier Wevers and Whim W’Him Seattle Contemporary Dance
Benaroya Hall (200 University Street)
Seattle, Washington
Tickets $60; Students $25 (ID required)
www.musicofremembrance.org/worlds
Art From Ashes
Monday, January 22, 2024 @ 5:30pm
In collaboration with University of Washington Chamber Orchestra, Northwest Boychoir, and Seattle Girls Choir
Benaroya Hall (200 University Street)
Seattle, Washington
Tickets: Free. Reserved seating, reservations required.
www.musicofremembrance.org/ashes
Phoenix
Sunday, March 10, 2024 at 5:30 pm
World Premiere: Phoenix
Created by Sahba Aminikia, composer, and Zara Houshmand, librettist with Vanessa Isiguen, soprano, and Rachel Hauge, mezzo
World Premiere: “Seks Yiddishe Lider un Tantz” from The Golem
Choreographed by Donald Byrd to existing music by Betty Olivero with Spectrum Dance. Plus works by Carlos Simon and Lori Laitman
Benaroya Hall (200 University Street)
Seattle, Washington
Tickets $60; Students $25 (ID required)
www.musicofremembrance.org/phoenix
Before It All Goes Dark
World Premiere Opera
Created by Jake Heggie, composer, and Gene Scheer, librettist with Joseph Mechavich, conductor, and Erich Parce, director
Mac: Ryan McKinny
Sally/Misha/Emil: Megan Marino
Chamber Ensemble
Demarre McGill, flute
Laura DeLuca, clarinet
Mikhail Shmidt, violin
Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola
Eric Han, cello
Jonathan Green, double bass
Jessica Choe, piano
Sunday, May 19, 2024 @ 4:30pm
Seattle, Washington
Benaroya Hall (200 University Street)
Tickets $60; Students $25 (ID required)
www.musicofremembrance.org/dark
Wednesday, May 22, 2024 @ 7:30pm
San Francisco, California
Presidio Theatre (99 Moraga Avenue)
Tickets $40-75
www.musicofremembrance.org/darksf
Saturday, May 25, 2024 @ 7:30pm
Sunday, May 26, 2024 @ 3pm
Chicago, Illinois
Studebaker Theater (410 South Michigan Avenue)
Tickets $40-75
About Music of Remembrance
Established in 1998, Music of Remembrance (MOR) has made a unique impact through works that honor the resilience of all people excluded or persecuted for faith, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality. Its programs pay tribute to historic memory – and directly confront challenges to human rights and dignity today. In addition to its work discovering and performing music from the Holocaust, MOR is admired around the world for its leadership in commissioning and premiering new works by leading composers, including varied chamber ensembles, song cycles, choral works, dance music, film scores, musical dramas, and full-length operas. MOR’s online concerts, nine albums, three documentary films, and many outreach programs have added to the impact experienced by live audiences. MOR’s annual David Tonkonogui Memorial Award welcomes new generations along on this journey, nurturing young musicians who seek to address issues of human rights through their art.