The Choral Union and Women’s Choir at Stephen F. Austin State University will present a concert in remembrance of the Holocaust victims of World War II when the ensembles perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 12, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.
The program, “Reflections from the Camps,” will also feature Dr. Evgeni Raychev, cello; Shirley Watterston, piano; Sherri Fleshner, viola; and SFA vocal area faculty, narrators and soloists.
“This concert will be a true team effort,” said Dr. Tod Fish, director of the Choral Union and Women’s Choir. “The entire vocal area is involved in some capacity. Our graduate students, Marissa Maddoux (Burleson) and Andrew Trites (Olathe, Kan.), who have worked tirelessly, will have the opportunity to conduct on this concert.”
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops on Jan. 27, 1945.
“We are hoping this concert will bring us toward viewing those who suffered and died during the Holocaust as not only historical statistics, but as human beings,” Fish said.
The Women’s Choir will perform “Reflections from Yad Vashem” by Daniel J. Hall, who describes his work as a “musical and poetical response to the poignant and lingering impressions evoked by the Yad Vashem Children’s Memorial.” Fleshner will be the viola soloist for the piece.
The Choral Union and Women’s Chorus will combine to perform Donald McCullough’s “Holocaust Cantata: Songs from the Camps.”
“This is a moving work based on texts and melodies composed by prisoners at the concentration camps in Buchenwald, Auschwitz and Majdanek, to name a few,” Fish said. “The work contains no plot, but rather represents a different person and camp in each reading and musical setting.” The SFA voice faculty will serve as narrators and soloists for this work while Raychev will accompany the choir on the cello.
The men of the Choral Union will perform Douglas Helvering’s arrangement of Louis Lewandowski’s setting of “Enosh,” which is a setting of Psalm 103: 15-17.
Tickets for the concert, which is a presentation of the SFA College of Fine Arts and School of Music, are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.
