
Out of the Shadows: Music and Theatre from the Jewish Archive (Ze stínu: hudba a divadlo ze židovského archivu), Czech Republic
A festival rediscovering and performing Jewish music and theatre.
Type | Festival |
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Date | 18th September 2016 - 25th September 2016 |
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.