Music is a powerful medium and especially powerful when it is evoking the past. The Terezin Music Foundation (TMF) seeks to do just this and keep the music of genocide victims alive. TMF will hold their annual gala at Symphony Hall on October 8.  It will showcase world-renowned classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein, as well as TMF-commissioned artists Ellis Ludwig-Leone of San Fermin and Milad Yousufi of Afghanistan. The gala will also feature the works of Satie, Glass, and Schubert.

TMF was founded in 1991 to research and showcase the music of Terezin concentration camp inmates. Terezin was a Nazi concentration camp based in what is now the Czech Republic. At Terezin, a vibrant musical and arts culture was able to emerge against a backdrop of brutality. Between 1941 to 1945, composers Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, Hans Krása, Viktor Ullmann, and many others sustained themselves through music that they composed and performed for their fellow inmates. TMF showcases both established and emerging musicians to present the inmate’s music as well as their own music to international audiences to keep the Terezin musical legacy alive. 

“Their work stands on its own artistic merit alone,” says TMF executive director Mark Ludwig.  “When you pair it with the history in which they created these works, it adds furthermore to our consciousness in terms of censorship and human rights.” TMF also sponsors several Holocaust education programs to further their mission. “A big part of our educational goals is teaching students how to draw a connection from the past to the present and how to do that through the medium of art,” Ludwig said. It shows the power of art in our lives and how that can be so empowering for students in our program.”

Besides education, TMF’s primary aim is commissioning up-and-coming musicians. This gala will feature two newly-commissioned musicians. Pianist and composer Milad Yousufi is seeking asylum from Afghanistan and had to teach himself the piano in secrecy, similar to the persecuted artists of Terezin. The Boston Symphony orchestra will perform his piece “Refuge.” The gala will also premiere the piece “Sanctuary” by Ellis Ludwig-Leone, as songwriter and bandleader. 

Also, the 2018 gala will formally honor Barbara Grossman, professor of drama at Tufts University, and Steve Grossman, CEO of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), an organization dedicated to achieving economic prosperity in America’s inner cities. “They have been long-time supporters of Terezin,” Ludwig said. “They have also been big supporters of our educational outreach throughout the United States and Europe. They have a long-standing commitment to civic and community service and were involved in the establishment of the New England Holocaust Memorial.” On top of that, former governor Michael Dukakis and his wife Kitty Dukakis will present the 2018 Terezin Legacy Award to the Grossmans.

Ludwig hopes that the concert-goers take away more than just the sound of beautiful music from the upcoming gala, and hopefully reflect on what this music meant for Terezin prisoners as well as for others who are seeking refuge and asylum all over the world today. 

“The title of the program is Sanctuary. Sanctuary is what music and arts meant to the prisoners of Terezin,” Ludwig said. “Commissioning these works by new and upcoming artists is that ongoing homage to these incredibly gifted artists whose voices were silenced.”

The 2018 Sanctuary Gala will begin with a reception at 5 pm and the concert will start at 6 pm.

Students attend free; please contact Terezín Music Foundation: info@terezinmusic.org, tel. 857-222-8262

By Alicia Landsberg