A theatrical presentation of the life and music of Gideon Klein. (A Performing the Jewish Archive event)

Written and devised by David Fligg

Directed by Isabel Karp

Performed on Yom Ha'Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) at the Hillel Foundation (Barbara Hochberg Center for Jewish Life), 5 May 2016, as part of the 'Out of the Shadows: Rediscovering Jewish Music and Theater' festival in Madison (Wisconsin, USA).

On 27 January 1945, the young Czech Jewish composer Gideon Klein was murdered by the SS in an Auschwitz sub-camp. Prior to that, he was imprisoned in the Terezín (Theresienstadt) concentration camp, where he was at the centre of a unique array of musical and cultural activities.

Though his activities there are well documented, little has been known about his life in Prague before the war. Using actors and musicians, Gideon Klein: Portrait of a Composer draws on recently-discovered archival material and personal testimony, much of it never before having been presented in public, to portray, for the first time, his pre-war life. It is an intimate, poignant, and at times humorous account of artistic and Jewish life in Prague immediately before, and during, the German occupation, and of Gideon’s struggles to survive imprisonment.

Actors: Josh Epstein (as Gideon); Isabel Karp (Narrator); Hannah Klegon; Jesse Markow; Elisheva Pront; Madeleine Wolf

With the Pro Arte String Quartet

Musical extracts

GIDEON KLEIN: Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello; Duo for Violin and Cello

MOZART: String Quartet in G major, K387

HINDEMITH: Trio No. 1 for Violin, Viola and Cello

JANACEK: String Quartet No. 1, Kreutzer Sonata