Zisl Slepovitch's Ensemble and Sasha Lurje present a selection of songs discovered, curated, transcribed, and arranged by Dr. D. Zisl Slepovitch, Musician-in-Residence at Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University, a unique collection of 4400 interviews conducted mainly in the 1980’s–90's. The songs in the program provide a series of insights into the Holocaust survivors’ experiences both during World War II and in the pre-war time as they were growing up. The widely diverse compositions form a timeline that helps recreate a multidimensional image of people’s lives and the multiple identities they carried — as Jews by faith and roots, and as European citizens — Poles, Germans, Russians– by culture. These identities were shaped during the vibrant and dynamic interwar period, which is represented by several songs. The core of the program, however, conveys the ways people managed to survive during the Holocaust, not in the least thanks to the support they gained through the songs they wrote and sang in the ghettos and concentration camps all across Central and Eastern Europe. The songs in many languages are arranged and interwoven with the matching instrumental pieces performed by a 4-piece instrumental ensemble.
The Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, Memory Studies invites you to our International Holocaust Remembrance Day event, January 27th at 5pm at the Spurlock Museum, featuring Zisl Slepovitch and songs culled from Holocaust testimonies. This will be a moving and important testament to the power of music in the worst conditions. If you are a student please join Zisl for lunch at 12:30 on January 27th in 109 English; if you are teaching, please invite your students to join him for lunch. RSVP for lunch to Leslie Davison, ldp@illinois.edu.
