Wichita Community Holocaust Commemoration April 26, 2017

Please join us for the Wichita Community Holocaust Commemoration on Wednesday, April 26 at 7:00 p.m.  Our commemoration will be held in the Dugan-Gorges Center, Newman University, 3100 W. McCormick St, Wichita, Kansas.

Survivor Rachel Goldman Miller is our guest speaker. In 1942, nine-year-old Rachel was sent into hiding outside of Paris. Rachel never saw her family again.  In Auschwitz Ms. Miller lost 93 family members.  "I tell my story," she says, "It keeps my family alive."

The service will include readings and musical performances.  Works to be performed are Sonata for Two Violins by Mordecai Seter, "The Butterfly" from I Never Saw Another Butterfly: A Musical Memorial by Charles Davidson, and "We Know Every Child Here" from Brundibar by Hans Krasa.  Performances will be by musicians Laura Hammes Black, Lauren Betts, Becky Schmidt, Martiya Schmidt, and Sarah Chocron.

For more information contact the Mid-Kansas Jewish Federation at (316) 686-4741.

 

Concert and lecture featuring works from Terezin

Music of a Holocaust Ghetto: Works from

the Terezin Ghetto

Tuesday, March 24, 2015 @ 7:00 p.m.

at the Hebrew Congregation Wichita, 1850 N. Woodlawn

Featuring works by Gideon Klein, Ilse Weber, and Pavel Haas

performed by Laura Hammes Black, Joan Pfaff, Yecheskel Francis,

Susan Mayo, and Liz Tiede

Nancy Trier-Metzger, director of The Terezin Composers Project Foundation and Master of Liberal Arts candidate at Wichita State, will present a brief lecture about the history of the Theresienstadt/Terezin Ghetto in Czechoslovakia during the Holocaust and some of the composers imprisoned there.  A performance of three works by these composers will follow the lecture.

During World War II, Nazi Germany occupied Czechoslovakia and transformed the garrison town of Terezin, which they renamed Theresienstadt, into a transit camp for Czech Jews.  From there the prisoners were deported to other ghettos and camps, most often Auschwitz. Theresienstadt was unique among the Nazi camp system because of the unusually high number of artists, musicians, actors, writers, and other members of the Czech arts community deported there, yet it was a significant component of the Nazis' "Final Solution to the Jewish Question."

For more information, email

terezincomposers@gmail.com

http://www.terezincomposers.blogspot.com/

Resurrecting a blog

Nearly two years ago I began a blog--this blog, to be exact.  What I hoped would include a series of interesting, informative and insightful posts came to a dead stop after only two!  After a series of events, including an increase in my grad school course load, intensive work involving Camp Allegro Wichita (the nonprofit that I direct), and a serious medical issue, I have chosen to revive the blog.

In the spirit of renewal, I will share another new beginning: the start of a new season for the Wichita Symphony.  The musicians kick off their new concert series with a fun multimedia extravaganza featuring Bugs Bunny at the Symphony. Little did I know I was hearing great music when I watched Looney Tunes as a kid.  And we will hear some of the great classics again on September 28 and 29 as the symphony plays works by Rossini, Strauss and Wagner (no doubt excerpts from that great Wagnerian opera Kill the Wabbit will be included).  The orchestra will provide live accompaniment while cartoons will be projected on a large screen.

Perhaps this seems rather silly, writing about a concert featuring cartoons.  Naturally, the WSO concert season is more serious minded.  In fact, some major works in the classical music repertoire will be performed this season.  I am particularly excited about the first concert as a favorite work will be performed: Stravinksy's The Rite of Spring.  For more info on the excellent programming for this year, see the WSO website.  

What began as a reintroduction to my blog became a plug for the Wichita Symphony.  I realize this may be of interest only to readers living in or near Wichita; however, I felt that one of the larger arts organizations in our area deserved a post dedicated to its programs.  Why? Perhaps readers who do not already attend concerts or buy season tickets might consider doing so.  By becoming a concert-goer you will support an excellent arts organization, hear great works performed LIVE by accomplished musicians, and enjoy an evening socializing with friends and new acquaintances. 

Just for fun, I leave you with the following clip featuring the immortal Elmer Fudd and the Wabbit.
See you at the symphony!

A Story

The arts have been a hot topic of discussion lately, especially here in Kansas.  The elimination of funding for the Kansas Arts Commission has resulted in an additional loss of $1.2 million from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mid-America Arts Alliance.  This loss of additional funding was not unexpected as both the NEA and the Mid-America Arts Alliance had made clear that the state of Kansas needed to meet certain requirements in order to continue receiving arts dollars.

My story, however, is not about the governor's veto of KAC funding, nor is it about the numerous benefits of arts support such as the impact on economic growth (as Orpheum Theatre president writes in her Wichita Eagle column here) or the positive effect on the intellectual development of children, nor is it about the significance of the arts in the strengthening of communities.  My story is simply about how valuable the arts (in this case, music) apparently are to children and parents.

Over ten years ago, a music day camp, Camp Allegro, was inaugurated by my good friend Helen Griffin.  Thanks to Catherine Consiglio, principal violist with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of Chamber Music at The Barn, Helen had the opportunity to provide youth with music instruction and performances during the summer.  Some children had already begun playing musical instruments; others first picked up an instrument at camp.  Eager to be a part of this endeavor, I began working with the camp in its second year and became the co-director.  Unfortunately, CMB was not immune to the downturn of the economy and the organization chose to downsize by reducing the number of its camps; Camp Allegro was discontinued and a new camp for strings only, now called Bows at the Barn, took its place (the camp will be in its fourth season this coming summer).  Although this was a sad turn of events, I was moving on to other things (especially a return to grad school) and was not terribly upset.

That, however, was not the reaction of many of the teachers, former campers and parents.  To be quite honest, I had not expected the uproar that the loss of camp had created.  In particular, my good friend Laura Black (also a WSO member), who had been invaluable in the formation of Camp Allegro, convinced me that we "just had to have Camp Allegro."  Laura immediately began to organize a summer ensemble workshop.  Emotion eclipsed reason, and I decided to begin a new nonprofit organization despite my suspicions that doing so would involve many long hours.  I had worked with nonprofits, taken courses in nonprofit management and  I had access to numerous resources in the community.  We began a new nonprofit with a lot of help from our friends, including teachers and parents; by April 2009, Camp Allegro Wichita was born.  To make a long story short, our very first summer was quite successful and we are approaching our fourth summer. 

The point of this story is not to promote myself or pat myself on the back; in fact, I am indebted to my friends Helen and Laura, as well as to the teachers who volunteered that first summer.  The point is that these children, parents and teachers did not see music as a frill, an "extra", something nice but not really necessary.  Camp Allegro Wichita came into being because they felt a great loss, that something significant would be missing in our community.

What does arts funding have to do with all of this?  Nonprofits become fiscally viable organizations by having realistic, sound budgets with a reliable source of income.  Some will come from the users themselves (here, tuition from the campers), some money is received from donations, and some funding will come from grants (this last source is not at all easy to get, but that is a story for another day).  It is absolutely vital to the directors of our camp that ALL youth can attend, regardless of their financial situation.  Keeping tuition reasonably low is a priority; however, the availability of scholarships is crucial for those who can't afford the cost, hence the need for donations AND grants.

The moral of the story is that many people do consider arts a fundamental part of life.  The Kansas legislature voted on a budget that included funding for the arts because that is what voters wanted.  That decision, which reflected the will of the constituents, should have been respected.

By way of introduction

I am a musician, arts advocate, linguaphile, graduate student, lover of books and culture.  You can read more about me on my profile.

The photo you see posted as my profile picture is from a performance of  "Brundibar", a children's opera written by the Czech composer Hans Krasa (1899-1944).  The opera was first performed secretly in 1942 in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia (called the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia) at the Vinohrady Jewish Boys' Orphanage.  The composer had previously been deported to Theresienstadt (Terezin) on the first transport in November 1941; Theresienstadt was a transit camp and labor camp.  The Nazis referred to it as a ghetto and even a resort or spa town.  By July 1943, all of the children from the orphanage had also been sent to the ghetto.  "Brundibar" received its first performance in Theresienstadt in September 1943.  It was performed 55 times, including a performance for the International Red Cross Committee during a visit in June 1944.  In October 1944, Krasa was deported to Auschwitz and murdered.  Of the 15,000 children who were interned at Theresienstadt, approximately 100 survived.

I will be writing more about this topic in later posts.  In the meantime, you can find more information about Theresienstadt at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum here.  More information about Krasa and other composers interned there can be found here.  One word of caution:  although much has been written about and can be found on the Web regarding Theresienstadt, not all of it is accurate.  It is important to bear in mind that the ghetto was not an artists' colony but was, in fact, a transit/labor camp with intolerable and inhumane conditions.

I hope readers who love the arts and culture will find my humble blog interesting despite its imperfections.  In addition to writing about the topic of this post, I also will be writing about contemporary culture and society.

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