The Role of Music in the Holocaust

ClassNotes Residency at Leon County Schools April 28-May 2, 2014

ClassNotes concert for the community May 3, 2014

Brundibar Opera June 6 and 7, 2014

This is a joint partnership between ClassNotes, Leon High School and Cobb Middle School in Tallahassee, Florida.

Three live musicians (Sharon Roffman, violin, Max Mandel, viola and Caitlin Sullivan, cello) will visit the history classes of Leon County High School for one intensive week and present lessons on the varied roles of music during the Holocaust.  From its use by the Nazis as a method of torture and propaganda, to resistance fighters using songs as a clandestine way to deliver messages, to musicians prisoners performing concerts and writing new music in the camps, music had a huge presence in everyday life.  Ultimately for most it became a profound and necessary outlet to express emotions and preserve humanity in the face of extraordinary violence and discrimination.  Through interactive games and exercises with the students, the musicians will explore the idea of music as a means of expression, communication, developing empathy and combating bullying.  The musicians will also work with the orchestra and chorus in master classes and workshops.

A final concert on May 3 will conclude the residency, open to the community at large, which will feature performances by the trio, the school chorus and the school orchestra, featuring music that was written and performed in the concentration camps.

On June 6 and 7, Cobb Middle School will present a staged production of Brundibar, a children’s opera by Jewish Czech composer Hans Krasa, which was originally performed by the children of Theresienstadt concentration camp in occupied Czechoslovakia.  ClassNotes violinist Sharon Roffman will lead the pit orchestra comprised of Leon students.  One of the original children who performed the opera at Terezin, concentration camp survivor Ela Stein Weissburger, will come to work with the students and share her story.

Wednesday, June 12 at 4 pm
Hudson Guild
441 West 26th Street (at Tenth Avenue) | Manhattan
212-760-9837
hudsonguild.org
Click here for more info on this concert.

Pelham Arts Center and ClassNotes, with support from ArtsWestchester, present Global Cultures; Storytelling through Music, a one-hour concert performed at Pelham Arts Center by the professional musicians of ClassNotes, featuring works created by composers to reflect aspects of their native or adopted land.  This concert culminates a one-week residency at Hutchinson Elementary School in Pelham, in which ClassNotes’ artists will work intensively with the entire third grade, exploring six composers, their origins, and how they used music to describe and illustrate their environment.  The concert will feature performances by ClassNotes’ musicians interspersed with commentary and explanation from Hutchinson third graders, as well as two collaborations for the third grade singers and string quartet.  This project is being made possible by the Arts Partners Challenge Grant program of ARTSWESTCHESTER, with funding from the AIE Local Capacity Building Program of the New York State Council on the Arts.

Sharon Roffman, violin
Nurit Pacht, violin
Jessica Meyer, viola
Caitlin Sullivan, cello
Benjamin Fingland, clarinet
Rami Vamos, guitar

Program:

Quartet in c minor, Opus. 18 No. 4
Ludwig von Beethoven  (1770-1827)
First movement – Allegro ma non tanto

“Spring” from the Four Seasons
Antonio Vivaldi   (1678-1741)
First movement – Allegro

Evocations de Slovakie, Night
Karel Husa  (1921-)

Stockbridge Mohican Song
Brent Michael Davids  (1959- )

Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind.
Osvaldo Golijov   (1960-)

Quintet for Guitar and Strings, Fandago
Luigi Boccherini  (1743-1805)

Dia:Beacon Riggio Galleries
3 Beekman St. Beacon, NY 12508
845.440.0100
Admission to the concert is free; concert-goers will also receive free admission to the museum prior to the concert

Sharon Roffman, violin
Annaliesa Place, violin
Max Mandel, viola
Joel Noyes, cello

Dia Art Foundation and ClassNotes, with support from the Dutchess County Arts Council, present An Afternoon of String Quartets in the Gallery, a one hour concert performed at Dia:Beacon by the professional musicians of ClassNotes and inspired by the life and work of
Max Neuhaus, a Dia-commissioned artist who died in February of 2009. This concert culminates a one-week residency at South Avenue Elementary School, in which ClassNotes’ artists will work intensively with the entire third grade, exploring concepts introduced in the writings of Max Neuhaus through live music and interactive lessons.

Program:
Beethoven: Quartet in c minor, Opus. 18 No. 4 First movement – Allegro ma non tanto
Vivaldi: “Spring” from the Four Seasons First movement – Allegro
John Cage: Variations II
Steve Reich: Different Trains First movement – America before the War
Original Compositions South Ave Third Graders
Dvorak: String Quartet in F Major “American” Fourth movement – Finale

A nonprofit institution founded in 1974, Dia Art Foundation is internationally renowned for initiating, supporting, presenting, and preserving art projects. Dia presents public programs and its permanent collection of works from the 1960s through the present at Dia:Beacon, Riggio Galleries located on the Hudson River in Beacon, New York. In
the fall of 2007 Dia initiated a partnership with The Hispanic Society of America through which Dia presents commissions and projects by contemporary artists within the Society’s galleries while seeking a permanent home for these initiatives in New York City. Additionally, Dia Art Foundation maintains long-term, site-specific projects in the western United States, New York City, and Bridgehampton, Long Island. For additional public information, visit www.diaart.org.
Dutchess County Arts Council The Dutchess County Arts Council is a nonprofit arts service organization founded in 1964, dedicated to strengthening and supporting artists and arts organizations in Dutchess County and the Mid-Hudson Valley region.
Max Neuhaus is the pioneer of artistic activities with sound. A renowned interpreter of contemporary music while still in his twenties, Neuhaus went on to become the first to extend sound as an autonomous medium into the domain of contemporary art.

This concert culminates a residency at Gramercy Arts High School from December 8-12, 2008 exploring the relationship between music and poetry. During this week, the teaching artists will lead workshops focused on three sub-topics: a study of the poetry of Langston Hughes as it relates to the musical form of the blues, a comparison between the poetic form of the Haiku and the music of Anton Webern, and an examination of the way composers set poems to music, with an emphasis on Ode to Napoleon by Arnold Schoenberg. The concert will feature performances by the teaching artists as well as original poems presented by Gramercy Arts students.

Concert Program
(supported by the Alexander Schneider Foundation)
Johannes Brahms: Lieder
Maurice Ravel: Sonata for Violin and Piano
Anton Webern: Six Bagatelles for String Quartet
Arnold Schoenberg: Ode to Napoleon
and more!

Washington Irving High School Workshop 2006