Their Voices – Art Chamber Ensemble Concert
POLIN Museum invites you to hear songs from the latest album of Art Chamber Ensemble, "Ich Głosy” or "Their Voices." The audience will listen to the music of Joseph Achron, Joachim Mendelson, Szymon Laks, and Józef Koffler. During the finale, the audience will hear the composition, "Silent Voices," by Benjamin Lees. It is "a small gesture of memory" for those whose voices were forever silenced by the pogroms and genocides of the past.
- December 9 (Saturday), at 6 p.m.
- Admission is free, download your free ticket →
- Auditorium
The concert will open with, "Hebrew Melody," by Joseph Achron. A piece based on an authentic melody that the composer, who was born in the Suwałki region, heard in one of the Warsaw synagogues. Joachim Mendelson was a professor of theory and harmony at the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Warsaw. He was murdered in 1943 in the Warsaw Ghetto. Szymon Laks was an outstanding composer and conductor. As a prisoner of KL Auschwitz-Birkenau, he conducted the camp orchestra. Composer, musicologist, teacher, and publicist Józef Koffler was the first Polish dodecaphonist. In the 1930’s, his works were appreciated internationally, and the International Society of Contemporary Music recognized him as representative of new music. After German troops entered Lwów in 1941, Józef Koffler, his wife and son, were deported to the Wieliczka ghetto. The artist died in early 1944, shot near Krosno, where he was hiding after the liquidation of the ghetto.
Program:
- Joseph Achron (1886–1943) "Hebrew melody for violin and piano" op. 33.
- Joachim Mendelson (1897–1943) Sonata for violin and piano.
- Szymon Laks (1901–1983) Sonata for cello and piano.
- Józef Koffler (1896–1944) Capriccio for violin and piano, Op. 18.
- Benjamin Lees (1924–2010) Piano Trio No. 2 "Silent Voices."
Performers:
- Art Chamber Ensemble
- Julita Przybylska – Nowak – piano.
- Agnieszka Kołodziej – cello.
- Jarosław Pietrzak – violin.
The Art Chamber Ensemble was established on the initiative of lecturers of the Academy of Music. K. Lipiński in Wrocław. The founders of the Art Chamber Duo band are pianist Julita Przybylska-Nowak, and violinist Jarosław Pietrzak. One of the duo's first concerts was in 2010 during the ceremony of awarding the Righteous Among the Nations medals awarded by the Yad Vashem Institute. The Art Chamber Ensemble made its debut in 2013 at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, at a concert commemorating the activities of the Jewish Symphony Orchestra in the Warsaw ghetto. The band also presented music by Polish composers of Jewish origin at the "Singer's Warsaw Festival,” the Felix Mendelssohn Festival in Kraków, the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice, and the National Philharmonic in Warsaw.
The honorary patronage over the album, "Ich Głosy" is held by POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, and the partners of the Polonia Music Art Foundation, co-publisher of the album, are:
- Jewish Community Center in Warsaw.
- Academy of Music Karol Lipiński in Wrocław.
- Sponsor – STOART Association of Artists and Performers.
The project was co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Cultural Promotion Fund under the "Musical Trace" program implemented by the National Institute of Music and Dance.
