“Entertainment in the Barracks” by Bedrich Fritta, Terezin 1943. Collection of Thomas Fritta Haas. Shown in Our Will to Live.
A program commemorating the creative spirit of the Terezin artists who perished in the Holocaust. Mark Ludwig, director at the Terezin Music Foundation, will reveal the astonishing cultural output from a community imprisoned in a concentration camp outside of Prague. His recently published book, Our Will to Live, gives voice to Jews silenced during the Holocaust by featuring newly translated writings, rarely seen art, and references to vintage and contemporary recordings of music. The project provides fullest picture of this particular time in Jewish history to date.
The program will feature readings of select concert critiques by accomplished scholar Viktor Ullmann accompanied by vintage and modern recordings performed by Terezin survivors and contemporary masters, including Yo-Yo Ma and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Acclaimed violinist Michael Ludwig and pianist Beth Levin will perform works of Gideon Klein, Robert Dauber, and Erwin Schulhoff.
In Our Will to Live, Ullmann’s critiques are accompanied by more than 250 rarely seen concert posters, programs, portraits, and illustrated scenes from a trove of hidden artworks by imprisoned artists recovered after liberation. The presentation will feature a visual sampling of these images. The program will conclude with Q&A and book signing.
Historical background
In Terezin, a Nazi camp located in the present-day Czech Republic where 33,000 people died, imprisoned musicians and artists established a remarkable cultural community that persevered against all odds. The book Our Will to Live brings us into this astonishing world. It presents the first full translation of concert critiques written by accomplished musician, scholar, and Terezin prisoner Viktor Ullmann (1898–1944). Ullmann describes Terezin performances by ensembles, youth choirs, and solo artists including luminaries of European cabaret and opera, plus works by a generation of promising composers silenced too soon: Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas, Hans Krasa, and others.
A festival opening reception sponsored by the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York will follow.
Free and open to the public. Online registration through Eventbrite is required. Masks are required inside the venue.
The 2022 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival is dedicated to the people of Ukraine fighting for their independence. 🇺🇦 Suggested donation ($10) will be used to support Ukrainian refugees. All collected funds will be donated to People in Need, a Czech non-governmental, non-profit organization with over 20 years of experience in helping people in emergencies all over the world.
Project partners: Terezin Music Foundation, Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews.
ABOUT
MARK LUDWIG is a Fulbright scholar of Terezin music, a member of the Pamatnik Terezin Advisory Board and founding director of the Terezin Music Foundation. Since 1986, Ludwig has blended his musical career with social causes having a particular emphasis on issues of intolerance. He continually strives to combine his scholarship, teaching and performance endeavors with community service throughout the United States and Europe. He produces recordings, concerts and Holocaust and genocide education programs worldwide. Ludwig is a violist emeritus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, adjunct professor of Holocaust music at Boston College and editor of the poetry anthology Liberation (2015).
MICHAEL LUDWIG Hailed by Strad Magazine for his “effortless, envy-provoking technique… sweet tone, brilliant expression, and grand style”, Michael Ludwig enjoys a multi-faceted career as a soloist, recording artist, and chamber musician. A highly sought-after soloist, he has performed on four continents, including appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Pops, KBS Symphony in Seoul, Korea, Beijing Symphony, and the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, collaborating with such conductors as Sir Georg Solti, John Williams, and JoAnn Falletta, among others. Michael Ludwig is the Music Director of the Roxborough Orchestra.
Michael’s discography includes recordings of the Beethoven Violin Concerto, Bruch Scottish Fantasy, and Dvorak Romance with the Virginia Symphony, as well as the Wieniawski Concerto No. 2, Corigliano Red Violin Concerto, and Sibelius Concerto with the Buffalo Philharmonic. Ludwig's recording of the Corigliano Red Violin Concerto with the Buffalo Philharmonic is "hot, sharp, and close to the edge" writes critic Norman Lebrecht. His recording of the rarely performed Dohnanyi Violin Concertos with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra has received extraordinary reviews worldwide. As a chamber musician, Michael has shared the stage with numerous acclaimed artists, such as Christoph Eschenbach, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Yefim Bronfman, Sarah Chang, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet.
BETH LEVIN Since her age twelve debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Beth Levin has been celebrated as a bold interpreter of challenging works, from the Romantic canon to leading modernist composers like David Del Tredici and Andrew Rudin, both of whom have written works for her. The New York Times praised her “fire and originality,” while The New Yorker called her playing “revelatory.” Levin was taught and guided by legendary pianists Marian Filar, Rudolf Serkin, Leonard Shure, Dorothy Taubman, and Paul Badura-Skoda, who praised Levin as “a pianist of rare qualities and the highest professional caliber.” Said Tiara Ataii in Music and Vision of her PERSONAE recording, “Levin’s performance is near perfection, maintaining intensity in each note and crystalline tone in every register.”
ABOUT THE 2022 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH THEATER FESTIVAL
The 2022 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival: Under Pressure is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York, GOH Productions, Czech National Trust, Terezin Music Foundation, Trap Door Theatre, and Yara Arts Group.
The festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Ministry of Human Capacities, Hungary, and Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews.