Émigré. Music from the Jewish Exile in Shanghai
Conversation and concert with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin string quartet
String quartet, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; photo: Thomas Lingens
During the National Socialist regime, more than 18,000 Jewish refugees found asylum and salvation in Shanghai. While there, they had to contend with enforced ghettoization, the effects of war, inflation and shortages. It was against this historical backdrop that the US composer Aaron Sigman set the oratorio Émigré, which will be performed for the first time in Europe by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) on 3 November 2024.
The conversation and concert at the JMB is dedicated to the cultural life created by these Jewish escapees in exile, among them more than 450 musicians. Sophie Fetthauer, a specialist on musicians in exile, will shed light on this period in conversation with the composer of Émigré, Aaron Zigman.
The conversation will be held in English.
Thu 31 Oct 2024, 8 pm
Where
W. M. Blumenthal Academy,
Klaus Mangold Auditorium
Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin
(Opposite the Museum)
A DSO string quartet with Olga Polonsky and Lauriane Vernhes (violin), Francesca Zappa (viola) and Claudia Benker-Schreiber (cello) will also play works by Erwin Schulhoff, Pavel Haas, Wolfgang Fraenkel, Otto Joachim, Aaron Avshalomov and Ding Shan-de.
In cooperation with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO)
Program
Erwin Schulhoff: Five Pieces for String Quartet
Pavel Haas: String Quartet No. 1
Wolfgang Fraenkel: Music for String Quartet
Otto Joachim: String Quartet (1997)
Aaron Avshalomov: “The K’e Still Ripples to its Banks”
Gexin Chen: “Rose, Rose, I love you”, arranged by Otto Joachim
Ding Shan-de: Movement from String Quartet in E Minor
Performers
in the chamber ensemble of the DSO:
Olga Polonsky – violin
Lauriane Vernhes – violin
Francesca Zappa – viola
Claudia Benker-Schreiber – cello
Sophie Fetthauer – discussion
Aaron Zigman – discussion
Daniel Wildmann – moderation
Sophie Fetthauer studied historical and systematic musicology as well as contemporary German literature at the University of Hamburg. In 2002, she completed her thesis on music publishers in the “Third Reich” and in exile. Among other things, she was a research assistant on the project “Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit” (Encyclopedia of Persecuted Musicians during the NS Era) at the Institute for Historical Musicology at the University of Hamburg from 2005–2014. Since 2014, she has been working on the DFG-sponsored research project “Das Musikerexil in Shanghai 1938–1949” (Musicians in Exile in Shanghai (1938–1949).
Aaron Zigman is one of the USA’s most prominent composers. He has written the soundtrack for more than seventy Hollywood films and TV programs, including The Notebook, Bridge to Terabithia and Sex and the City. His music combines the sounds of Hollywood with echoes of Puccini and Bernstein. Zigman composed the piano concerto Tango Manos for Jean-Yves Thibaudet. His oratorio Émigré, written in 2023, has a libretto by Mark Campbell and additional lyrics by Brock Walsh.
