A festival rediscovering and performing Jewish music and theatre.

The week-long festival 'Out of the Shadows' (Ze stínu, in Czech) held in the Czech Republic in September 2016 featured music and theatre, most of it originating in what was Czechoslovakia by Czech-born or Czech-based Jewish artists. It included Jewish cabaret originally from the Terezín (Theresienstadt) ghetto and prison camp, vocal music by émigré composers, a powerful choral tableau of Jewish suffering and redemption, a Terezín performance of a children's play originally written in the ghetto, a new theatrical production about the life of Gideon Klein, specially-commissioned new music, and more besides. The Clothworkers Consort Chamber Choir from the UK, the Prague-based Fama String Quartet, the Flying Rabbi Klezmer Ensemble, amongst others, as well as the next generation of young artists from the Prague and Pilsen conservatories, performed throughout the week. Wonderful venues, including the Maisel, Jerusalem and Spanish synagogues in Prague, the beautifully-renovated Old Synagogue in PIlsen, and the historic interior of an apartment designed by Adolf Loos, enhanced the performances. Festival partners included the Prague Jewish Museum, Federation of Jewish Communities, Prague Conservatory, Gideon Klein Foundation, Radio Prague, Terezín Memorial, Pilsen Tourism, Austrian Embassy, and many others.

PROGRAMME SUMMARY

HERITAGE AND HOPE

5 pm, Jerusalem Synagogue, 18 September, PRAGUE

Táňa Fischerová, Daniel Dobiáš, Clothworkers Consort of Leeds

MAKE ONCE MORE MY HEART THY HOME:  A COMPOSER IN EXILE

(Patron: The Austrian Embassy)

7:30 pm, Spanish Synagogue, 18 September, PRAGUE

Clothworkers Consort of Leeds

FATE AND FAIRYTALES

1 pm, House of Music – Pilsen Conservatory, 19 September, PILSEN

Sojka Quartet, Jana Piorecká, Štěpánka Křesťanová

Students and teachers of the Pilsen Conservatory

MAKE ONCE MORE MY HEART THY HOME:  A COMPOSER IN EXILE

5 pm, Old Synagogue, 19 September, PILSEN

Clothworkers Consort of Leeds

JEWISH CABARET FROM TEREZÍN TO HELSINKI

6 and 8 pm, Loos Interiors, 19 September, PILSEN

Flying Rabbi Klezmer Ensemble

GIDEON KLEIN: PORTRAIT OF A COMPOSER

7:30 pm, Prague Conservatory, 20 September, PRAGUE

Fama Quartet, Students of the Prague Conservatory

MOTHER RACHEL AND HER CHILDREN

7:30 pm, Prague Conservatory, 22 September PRAGUE

Piccolo Coro, Táňa Fischerová, Milena Šajdková, Lukáš Hlavica, Helena Glancová

TEREZÍN´S THE FIREFLIES

4 pm, Attic Theatre, Magdeburg Barracks, 25 September TEREZÍN

Students from Central Michigan University

Lauren B. McConnell

Accompanying events

PERFORMING THE JEWISH PAST

21 September, 8:30–12 am, Jewish Museum.  An academic symposium on the reconstruction of historic performances by Jewish artists and the construction of new performances from archival material on Jewish topics. In association with the Jewish Museum in Prague. 

THE CZECH MUSICAL TRADITION: PERSECUTION AND INSPIRATION

21 September,12:30–1:15 pm, Maisel Synagogue.  This chamber music concert juxtaposes works by Czech composers persecuted during World War II (Egon Ledeč, Gideon Klein) and those who inspired them (including Suk’s ‘Meditation’) with the world premiere of a specially commissioned work by Prague-based composer Daniel Chudovský. In association with the Jewish Museum in Prague

GIDEON KLEIN’S PRAGUE

21 September, 3–5 PM.  A guided tour of Prague led by Dr. David Fligg, focusing on significant sites in the life of composer Gideon Klein. In English with simultaneous translation into Czech.

THE WOODEN BOX: A FAIRY TALE FROM TEREZÍN

21 September, 7:30 pm, Prague-Suchdol Town Hall.  Performed in Czech by the Obliging Suchdolians. When Adriana Skálová’s parents died, she found among their possessions a small wooden box containing her grandmother Lederer’s diaries, a collection of fairy tale plays for children labeled ‘Terezin 1943’, and extensive correspondence to and from the Terezin ghetto. The play ‘The Wooden Box’ weaves together the story of brave Jack and his attempts to slay the dragon, the story of the family Lederer as they fought to maintain ties in spite of war and deportation, and her own personal search for the meaning of her family’s complex and tragic history.

NATIONAL AWARDS, YOM HA SHOAH FOURTH ANNUAL CONTEST FOR SCHOOLS

23 September, 10 am–4 pm.  A pedagogical event for teachers and pupils to honour the national winners of the Terezín Initiative Institute´s annual Yom HaShoah competition. Pupils will present the winning works of visual art, prose, short films and musical compositions, and the Nature School in Prague will present a play written by 14-year-old Hanuš Hachenburg in the Terezín Ghetto, Looking for a Spectre. In association with the Terezín Initiative Institute

A TRAVELLING EXHIBITION created in collaboration with Performing the Jewish Archive and the South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation, will be displayed at all concerts, performances and events of the Out of the Shadows festival.