Educational Programs from The Defiant Requiem Foundation

Education Programs at The Defiant Requiem Foundation

Over 100 programs offered since 2008

There’s a lot going on behind the scenes at The Defiant Requiem Foundation. In addition to its public-facing programs — the concert-drama Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín, the Emmy-nominated documentary film Defiant Requiem, and other special programs presented online and in-person around the world — the Foundation also plays a major role in educational programs for teachers, students, and the general public.

On January 29 and February 28, 2024, DRF will present two workshops for teachers. The January event, in partnership with the Leo Baeck Institute at The Center for Jewish History will introduce NYC public school teachers to a new set of high school lesson plans about Terezín using the archival collections of the Leo Baeck Institute. The February event is co-presented by Centropa, an organization devoted to preserving Jewish memory. This online workshop introduces teachers to resources from both organizations that relate to Jewish life in Prague, the Terezín concentration camp, and cultural resistance.

These programs are part of Defiant Requiem’s educational mission to use the story of Terezín to introduce and deepen students' knowledge of the Holocaust and cultural resistance, past and present. The Foundation offers educational programming and materials for teachers of social students, English language arts, music and art to support the use of the 45-minute documentary film, Defiant Requiem in classrooms. The modules were developed through a rigorous process of conceptualization, critical review, and evaluation, and have been revised and refined based on feedback from dozens of highly experienced teachers from public, private, charter, and parochial schools.

Since its founding in 2008, The Defiant Requiem Foundation has offered over one hundred educational programs, including workshops for teachers and presentations for students in schools, across the United States. 

Curriculum details and additional information at education.defiantrequiem.org. Contact DRF Director of Education Alexandra Zapruder (azapruder@defiantrequiem.org) for inquiries about specific materials and programs.

Defiant Requiem performance in Bismarck, ND

View as Webpage

"We were hungry, we were tired, we were sick. But we had something to live for." *

October 20 & 21 in Bismarck, ND
at Belle Mehus Auditorium,
presented by Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín

Complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem (arranged for chamber ensemble), interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration tells the moving story of courageous performances by prisoners in a WWII concentration camp

* Quote at top by Edgar Krasa, Terezin survivor and chorus member

Praised by The New York Times as "Poignant...a monument to the courage of one man to foster hope among prisoners with little other solace," Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín will be performed in Bismarck, ND at the Belle Mehus Auditorium (201 N 6th St, Bismarck, ND) on Friday, October 20 & Saturday, October 21, 2023 at 7:30 pm. Complete details below.

The "extraordinarily beautiful and moving" concert/drama commemorates the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during World War II who performed Verdi's Requiem 16 times, as an act of defiance and resistance to their Nazi captors. Defiant Requiem is a complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration that tells this tale of audacious bravery. This is the first time Defiant Requiem is being performed in North Dakota.

Note: The performances on October 20 and 21 are of a specially-created chamber arrangement.

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín was created by Murry Sidlin who will lead the performance in a special chamber arrangement. It features soprano Korliss Uecker, mezzo-soprano Tammy Hensrud, tenor Emerson Eads, and bass Jason Thoms; the Bismarck-Mandan Civic Chorus led by Tom Porter; pianist Arlene Shrut, violinist Maureen Murchie, and cellist Abbie Eads; and actors Dan Bielinski and Beverley Everett.

Ticketing information and more for Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín is available in the calendar listing below.

The Defiant Requiem Foundation also produced an Emmy-nominated documentary film narrated by Bebe Neuwirth that has been praised as a "gripping documentary" (Examiner.com), with "a very powerful message" (CNN). On October 17, the Bismark-Mandan Symphony Orchestra presents a screening of the film at the Belle Mehus Auditorium (201 N 6th St Bismarck, ND), followed by a Q & A. Admission is free thanks to sponsorship from Humanities North Dakota.

CALENDAR LISTING
Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín

October 20 & 21 at 7:30 pm

Belle Mehus Auditorium
201 N 6th St, Bismarck, ND 58501

Tickets are $29-$44 ($18 students; $24-$34 seniors) and available at this link:
bismarckmandansymphony.org/events/DefiantRequiemVerdiatTerezin

Murry Sidlin, creator & conductor

Korliss Uecker, soprano
Tammy Hensrud, mezzo-soprano
Emerson Eads, tenor
Jason Thoms, bass

Arlene Shrut, piano
Maureen Murchie, violin
Abbie Eads, cello

Dan Bielinski & Beverley Everett, narrators
Bismarck-Mandan Civic Chorus
Dr. Tom Porter, choir director

Presented by the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra

Defiant Requiem Foundation: Fall 2023 Performances and Events

Live-streamed ~ conversation with the author

October 1, 2023: Washington, DC | Rescue and Resistance: The Remarkable Village of Le Chambon

Join author Maggie Paxson as she speaks with Holocaust survivor Peter Feigl, who was rescued from the Nazis as a young boy in France. From 1940 to 1944, the citizens of the small French village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon provided refuge for an estimated 5,000 people. Maggie Paxson, author of The Plateau delves into the fascinating question of why and how the villagers of Le Chambon resisted the Nazis.

Washington Hebrew Congregation in Washington, D.C. In person and livestreamed. REGISTER

First performance in North Dakota

October 20-21, 2023: Bismarck, ND | Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín (chamber version)

The "extraordinarily beautiful and moving" concert/drama commemorates the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during World War II who performed Verdi's Requiem 16 times, as an act of defiance and resistance to their Nazi captors. Defiant Requiem is a complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration that tells this tale of audacious bravery.

Belle Mehus Auditorium, Bismarck, ND. TICKETS

Live-streamed ~ world premiere

October 25, 2023: New York City | they burn, the fires of the night: lamentations from the ashes

Ghosts of the past weave their way into our present and future in Menachem Z. Rosensaft's book Poems Born in Bergen-Belsen. Composer Gerald Cohen has brought Rosensaft's words to the concert stage in his settings of these poems. Mezzo soprano Leah Wool and baritone David Kravitz are featured performers in the world premiere of Cohen's song cycle, they burn, the fires of the night: lamentations from the ashes. 

The program also includes selections from Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time and music by composers who were imprisoned at the concentration camp at Terezín during WWII.

Hebrew Union College, Manhattan. Admission is free; reservations are required. In person and live-streamed. REGISTER

October 25: World premiere of “they burn, the fires of the night: lamentations from the ashes”

The Defiant Requiem Foundation presents the world premiere of they burn, the fires of the night: lamentations from the ashes by Gerald Cohen 

Song cycle is a setting of texts from Poems Born in Bergen-Belsen by Menachem Z. Rosensaft

Featured performers: Mezzo soprano Leah Wool and baritone David Kravitz

October 25, 7 pm at Heller Museum at Hebrew Union College in NYC and live-streamed worldwide

“[Gerald Cohen’s music] reveals a very personal modernism that...offers great emotional rewards.” - Gramophone

Ghosts of the past weave their way into our present and future in Menachem Z. Rosensaft's book Poems Born in Bergen-Belsen. Composer Gerald Cohen has brought Rosensaft's words to the concert stage in his settings of these poems. Mezzo soprano Leah Wool and baritone David Kravitz are featured performers in the world premiere of Cohen's song cycle, they burn, the fires of the night: lamentations from the ashes.

The composition, commissioned and presented by The Defiant Requiem Foundation, will be performed on Wednesday, October 25, 2023, at 7 pm at The Dr. Bernard Heller Museum at Hebrew Union College (One West Fourth Street in Manhattan). In-person and live-streamed attendance is free, reservations (at www.defiantrequiem.org/Oct25 beginning in late August) are required.

The program also includes music by composers who were imprisoned at the concentration camp at Terezín during WWII, including Viktor Ullmann, James Simon and Robert Dauber; as well as selections from Olivier Messiaen’s seminal Quartet for the End of Time. Instrumentalists include clarinetist Jon Manasse and cellist Julian Schwarz. Program details are below.

A post-performance discussion with the poet and composer will be moderated by Murry Sidlin, President and Artistic Director of The Defiant Requiem Foundation. The audience is invited to a reception following the program.

Calendar listing

Wednesday, October 25, 2023, 7 pm

The Dr. Bernard Heller Museum at Hebrew Union College
One West Fourth Street in Manhattan

World premiere of they burn, the fires of the night: lamentations from the ashes by Gerald Cohen on poetry by Menachem Z. Rosensaft; and other chamber works

Post-performance discussion led by Murry Sidlin, President and Artistic Director of The Defiant Requiem Foundation

In-person and live-stream admission is free, reservations (at www.defiantrequiem.org/Oct25 beginning in late August) are required.

PROGRAM

Gerald Cohen: they burn, the fires of the night: lamentations from the ashes (world premiere)
Viktor Ullmann: Variations and Fugue on a Hebrew Folksong from Piano Sonata No. 7
James Simon: Arioso for Unaccompanied Cello
Robert Dauber: Serenade for Violin and Piano
Olivier Messiaen: The Abyss of the Bird & Praise to The Eternity of Jesus
from Quartet for the End of Time

PERFORMERS
Herbert Greenberg, Violin
Jon Manasse, Clarinet
Julian Schwarz, Cello
Marika Bournaki, Piano
Leah Wool, Mezzo Soprano
David Kravitz, Baritone

The performance is underwritten by the House of Julius Meinl

April 20 at Strathmore: 20 years of Defiant Requiem

"We were hungry, we were tired, we were sick. But we had something to live for."

Wednesday, April 20 in North Bethesda, MD
at The Music Center at Strathmore

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín
20th anniversary performance

Complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem, interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration tells the moving story of courageous performances by prisoners in a WWII concentration camp

Read about Defiant Requiem in The New York Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune and more

Praised by The New York Times as "Poignant...a monument to the courage of one man to foster hope among prisoners with little other solace," Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín celebrates its 20th anniversary with a performance at Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD on Wednesday, April 20, 2022 at 7:30 pm. Complete details below.

The "extraordinarily beautiful and moving" concert/drama commemorates the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during World War II who performed Verdi's Requiem 16 times, as an act of defiance and resistance to their Nazi captors. Defiant Requiem is a complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration that tells this tale of audacious bravery.

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín was created by Murry Sidlin, who will conduct the performance. It features soprano Jennifer Check, mezzo-soprano Ann McMahon Quintero, tenor Cooper Nolan, bass-baritone Nathan Stark; the Orchestra of Terezín Remembrance. A chorus of regional ensembles includes the American University Chamber Singers, The Catholic University of America Verdi Choir, Longwood University Camerata & Chamber Singers, University of Virginia Chamber Singers, Virginia Commonwealth University Commonwealth Singers, and the Virginia State University Concert Choir.

Since the world premiere performance twenty years ago, Defiant Requiem has had a profound and lasting impact on the communities and audiences who have experienced this powerful story live. The April 20, 2022 performance at Strathmore commemorates this twenty year milestone. The concert benefits the Foundation’s continuing efforts to honor the brave Jewish prisoners in Theresienstadt, educate future generations about why the Holocaust must never be forgotten, and foster conversations about contemporary issues including rising Holocaust ignorance and denial, antisemitism, and racism.

Ticketing information and more for Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín is available in the calendar listing below.

The Defiant Requiem Foundation also produced an Emmy-nominated documentary film narrated by Bebe Neuwirth that has been praised as a "gripping documentary" (Examiner.com), with "a very powerful message" (CNN). More information is at DefiantRequiem.org

CALENDAR LISTING

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín

Wednesday, April 20 at 7:30 pm

The Music Center at Strathmore
5301 Tuckerman Lane
North Bethesda, MD 20852

Tickets at strathmore.org

Murry Sidlin, creator & conductor

Jennifer Check, soprano
Ann McMahon Quintero, mezzo
Cooper Nolan, tenor
Nathan Stark, bass-baritone

Orchestra of Terezín Remembrance

with a chorus of regional ensembles:

American University Chamber Singers
Daniel Abraham, director

The Catholic University of America Verdi Choir
Murry Sidlin, interim conductor

Longwood University Camerata & Chamber Singers
Pamela McDermott, director

University of Virginia Chamber Singers
Michael Slon, director

Virginia Commonwealth University Commonwealth Singers
Erin Freeman, conductor

Virginia State University Concert Choir
Patrick D. McCoy, interim director

Presented by The Defiant Requiem Foundation with the generous support of Jeff Schoenfeld and our other sponsors. Proceeds to benefit the Foundation’s ongoing educational programs and initiatives.

Atlanta's "11 Alive" features Defiant Requiem and Hours of Freedom

On December 5, 2019 at 7:00 pm The Defiant Requiem Foundation performs Hours of Freedom: The Story of the Terezín Composer. Hours of Freedom is a concert-drama that showcases music by fifteen composers imprisoned in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp (Terezín) during World War II. The performance is at the Ahavath Achim Synagogue (600 Peachtree Battle Ave NW, Atlanta). Admission is free; reservations are required by November 30 at this link. This performance is the featured 2019 Fran Eizenstat and Eizenstat Family Memorial Lecture.

Thanks to Candace Schilling of Ahavath Achim Synagogue for her work in securing this interview.

Hours of Freedom at Ahavath Achim Synagogue

Hours of Freedom: The Story of the Terezín Composer

December 5, 2019

Ahavath Achim Synagogue

Produced by The Defiant Requiem Foundation as the 2019 Fran Eizenstat and Eizenstat Family Memorial Lecture

Hours of Freedom combines live music, video, and narrative to highlight works by fifteen composers imprisoned in the Theresienstadt (Terezín) Concentration Camp during WWII

On December 5, 2019 at 7:00 pm The Defiant Requiem Foundation performs Hours of Freedom: The Story of the Terezín Composer. Hours of Freedom is a concert-drama that showcases music by fifteen composers imprisoned in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp (Terezín) during World War II. The performance is at the Ahavath Achim Synagogue (600 Peachtree Battle Ave NW, Atlanta). Admission is free; reservations are required by November 30 at this link. This performance is the featured 2019 Fran Eizenstat and Eizenstat Family Memorial Lecture.

Hours of Freedom: The Story of the Terezín Composer combines video, music, and narrative to highlight compositions by Viktor Ullmann, Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas, Rudolf Karel, and about a dozen others. Much of this music was the last that was composed by these gifted artists - many of whom were in their 20s and 30s when they perished. Several were destined to be the next generation of significant Czech composers, following in the footsteps of Dvořák, Smetana, Janáček, Martinu, and Suk. Some of their compositions reflect the personal, eyewitness account of the agony and suffering of camp life, while others express the assurance of a return to life as it was before the war.

The music is performed by vocalists Arianna Zukerman, Leah Wool, and David Kravitz, concertmaster and solo violinist Herbert Greenberg, cellist Julian Schwarz, pianist Phillip Silver, with the Hours of Freedom Chamber Players. Program highlights include:

• Ullmann's 7th Piano Sonata, which contains hidden sociological and patriotic messages.

• The Etude for Strings by Pavel Haas, which will combine the live ensemble together with Terezín musicians captured on film in August 1944.

• A song cycle by Hans Krasa, which evokes heart-breaking longing.

• Karel Svenk's Everything is Possible, which represents the cabaret "voice" of Terezín from one of Europe's most imaginative artists.

Murry Sidlin, the founder of The Defiant Requiem Foundation, is the creator and writer of Hours of Freedom and conducts this performance. The performance is generously supported by The Molly Blank Fund of The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation.

2019 marks the 31st year of The Fran Eizenstat and Eizenstat Family Memorial Lecture. This prestigious event has featured Nobel Peace Prize and Pulitzer Prize winners, United States Presidents and Vice Presidents, Supreme Court Justices, and Israeli Prime Ministers, among other eminent national and international guests. Stuart Eizenstat, The Defiant Requiem Foundation board chair since 2011, established the series in 1987 to honor the memory of his family members.

Ahavath Achim Synagogue cultivates a Jewish community of purposeful belonging. We inspire and support spiritual journeys by deepening relationships with one another. We believe it is at the crossroads of our spiritual paths that life’s purpose and God might be found.

Murry Sidlin and The Defiant Requiem Foundation also produced an Emmy-nominated documentary film narrated by Bebe Neuwirth that has been praised as a "gripping documentary" (Examiner.com), with "a very powerful message" (CNN). More information is at DefiantRequiem.org.

CALENDAR LISTING

Hours of Freedom: The Story of the Terezín Composer

Thursday, December 5, 2019 at 7:00 pm

Ahavath Achim Synagogue

600 Peachtree Battle Ave NW, Atlanta

aasynagogue.org/hours-of-freedom

Produced by The Defiant Requiem Foundation

as the 2019 Fran Eizenstat and Eizenstat Family Memorial Lecture

Murry Sidlin, creator & conductor

Callan White, narrator

Arianna Zukerman, soprano

Leah Wool, mezzo-soprano

Jonathan Blalock, tenor

David Kravitz, baritone

Herbert Greenberg, concertmaster and solo violin

Julian Schwarz, cello

Phillip Silver, piano

Hours of Freedom Chamber Players

Admission is free, registration is required.

Reserve by November 30th at aasynagogue.org/hours-of-freedom

2019/20 Performances

Defiant Requiem Foundation

November 4, 2019: Defiant Requiem | Budapest | Hungarian State Opera

50th worldwide performance of Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín

December 5, 2019: Hours of Freedom | Atlanta | Ahavath Achim Synagogue

Produced by The Defiant Requiem Foundation as the 2019 Fran Eizenstat and Eizenstat Family Memorial Lecture.

March 28, 2020: Defiant Requiem | Valdosta Symphony Orchestra

Presented by the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra, Valdosta State University Department of Music, and The Defiant Requiem Foundation with funding from the Gretchen M. Brooks University Residency Project.

LA Opus reviews Defiant Requiem with the Pacific Symphony

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín, with the PSO

REVIEW

Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Costa Mesa
DAVID J BROWN

To quote directly from the history of The Defiant Requiem on its website: 
“The story ofDefiant Requiem began in Minneapolis, MN in the mid-1990s when noted conductor and educator Murry Sidlin, then on the faculty of the University of Minnesota, happened upon a book entitled Music in Terezín, 1941-1945 by Joža Karas. The book was stacked among many others in a sidewalk sale of used and out-of-print titles, and Maestro Sidlin opened to a short chapter about a man named Rafael Schächter.”

The rest, one might say, is history, and in more ways than one. The passage of time inevitably imposes distance between past events and the present, and brings with it the dangers of blurring, distortion, misinterpretation and, worst of all, denial of those events. However, it also can bring understanding, remembrance, honoring, and perhaps most important when those events were monstrous, a sustained determination that they should never again be emulated or repeated.

Terezín, or Theresienstadt, was a concentration camp established by the Nazis in 1941 as a holding-place for Jews before being sent on to their murders at Auschwitz and elsewhere. But it was also conceived as a propaganda tool, a seemingly self-governed Jewish community supposedly run on humane lines, where education and cultural activities were encouraged. Music was a particular focus of activity at Terezín as many Jewish composers and performers were interned there, among them the young Czech composer, pianist and conductor, Rafael Schächter.

It was the series of no fewer than 16 performances of Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, composed 1868-1873, under Schächter’s direction at Terezín between 1942-1944 that caught Maestro Sidlin’s imagination and eventually altered the course of his life, leading him first to learn more about Schächter and the performances, then to seek out survivors’ eye-witness testimony, and finally to create the multi-media “concert-drama” Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín, first performed in 2002, which reached the Segerstrom Concert Hall this month.

Sidlin’s dramatic concept successfully walks the fine line between being true to the great masterpiece that so inspired Schächter by performing it complete, and surrounding it with visual and aural connective tissue that vividly tells the nature and circumstances of those performances three-quarters of a century ago. In addition, by the end the whole experience delivers a sledgehammer emotional impact quite aside from that of Verdi's music per se.

Video recordings of three surviving Terezín chorus-members, Edgar Krasa, Vera Schiff and Marianka Zadikow-May, projected on the big screen above the Pacific Chorale and the PSO, opened the evening and appeared later between some of the Requiem’s movements. After the first video, concertmaster Dennis Kim played part of the great Chaconne from Bach’s Partita in D minor for solo violin BWV 1004, and this led in to Maestro Sidlin’s scene-setting introduction from the rostrum.

A collage of sounds followed, representing Terezín’s teeming musical activity, to be suddenly broken off by a piercing whistle, and then the opening of the first movement, Requiem aeternam, on muted strings, with the chorus sotto voce. Sidlin drew this to a halt at measure 56 of the score, and picked up the microphone to speak again about Schächter’s character and charisma, his drive, and his motivation in mounting the work. From this point on, actors John Rubinstein and David Prather—playing, respectively, Schächter himself and a commenting “Lecturer” on spotlit podia set back left and right in the orchestra—added dramatic intensification to the documentary aspect.

All Schächter had to work with was a single vocal score of the Requiem, and the use of a damaged piano in the basement of the men’s barracks housing where he rehearsed, teaching the work by rote to his 150 singers. One of the most telling features of Sidlin’s concept was, from this point on, to introduce and conclude each section of the Requiem with just a piano playing the accompaniment, the orchestra being cued a few measures in and then giving way again to the piano shortly before the end of the movement.

Read the entire review at this link.

LA Times features Defiant Requiem: 'Nazi prisoners found humanity in music'

‘Defiant Requiem’: Nazi prisoners found humanity in music. This concert keeps the message alive

By SUSAN KING

APR 10, 2019

Among the estimated 140,000 Jews who passed through the Nazi ghetto and concentration camp in the Czech town of Terezin was conductor and composer Rafael Schachter, founder of the Prague Chamber Opera.

After Schachter was arrested in 1941 and sent to Terezin, about 30 miles north of Prague, he smuggled in one copy of Verdi’s Requiem, an 1874 composition for Catholic funerals. He taught it to a chorus of 150 — artists, scholars and others who staged concerts of opera, contemporary music and chamber music at Terezin. There even was a small jazz band called the Ghetto Swingers.

Schachter’s singers, accompanied by a pianist, went on to perform Verdi’s Requiem 16 times. The chrous shrank over the years, as members were sent to death camps. By the time they were forced to perform in 1944 as the agitprop of SS officials hosting a delegation from the International Red Cross, Schachter’s group had only 60 members.

The prisoners at Terezin were "starving, ill, living in terror, freezing,” and yet they mustered the energy to gather in a basement and rehearse because “they wanted to learn,” said conductor Murry Sidlin, creator of the concert “Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin.”

The program combines a choral performance of Verdi’s Requiem with video testimony from surviving members of the Terezin chorus, clips from a rare propaganda film shot by Germans in Terezin and a live performer portraying Schachter. “Defiant Requiem” has its Los Angeles and Orange County premieres with Sidlin conducting the Pacific Symphony and Pacific Chorale and Tony Award winner John Rubinstein (“Pippin”) playing Schachter; performances are Tuesday at Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa and April 17 at Royce Hall at UCLA. The latter is presented by the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust and the Defiant Requiem Foundation, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Sidlin founded in 2008.

Read the whole article at this link.

Jewish Journal features Defiant Requiem

‘Defiant Requiem’: They Sang to the Nazis What They Could Not Say

BY ROBERTO LOIEDERMAN | APR 16, 2019 

In 1943-44, at Terézin, a hybrid ghetto/concentration camp in the Czech Republic, 150 Jewish prisoners, led by a remarkable conductor, sang Verdi’s “Requiem” as a private act of defiance against the Nazis. 

Two separate performances of “Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terézin,”— on April 16 at Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa and on April 17 at UCLA’s Royce Hall — paid homage to those prisoners and to Rafael Schächter, the man who led the choir at Terézin, where the Nazis imprisoned many Jewish cultural figures, including classical musicians. 

“Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terézin,” which has been presented nearly 50 times around the world, performs Verdi’s Christian funeral mass in its entirety. The music is intercut with film clips, narration and taped testimonies from survivors. Much more than a concert or musical event, it’s a soul-wrenching testament to the power of maintaining one’s humanity in the most inhumane circumstances. 

In a phone interview with the Journal, Murry Sidlin, 78, who created, crafted and conducted “Defiant Requiem,” said that 25 years ago, when he was conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, he wandered past a table of used books. “I walked over and pulled a book from the middle. It was sticking out, almost beckoning me,” Sidlin said. “It was called ‘Music in Terézin.’”

The book, by Joža Karas, deals with music and the Holocaust. Sidlin was drawn to it because he is a noted orchestra conductor and music educator, and his grandmother was killed during the Holocaust.

“That book is about musicians at Terézin,” Sidler said. “I opened the book at random to a chapter called ‘Rafael Schächter.’ It said he had grown up in Romania and had excelled in music. In the last paragraph, it said that [at Terézin] he put together a volunteer choir of 150 singers and taught them Verdi’s “Requiem” by rote, because there was no score other than his own, and they performed it 16 times between September 1943 and June 1944.”

Read the whole feature at this link.

June 1: Defiant Requiem performance in Asheville

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín

Saturday, June 1 in Asheville, NC

at US Cellular Center

Thomas Wolfe Auditorium

Complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem, interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration tells the moving story of courageous performances by prisoners in a WWII concentration camp

Praised by The New York Times as "Poignant...a monument to the courage of one man to foster hope among prisoners with little other solace," Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín will be performed in Asheville, NC at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium (87 Haywood St.) on Saturday, June 1, 2019 at 7:30 pm. Complete details below.

The "extraordinarily beautiful and moving" concert/drama commemorates the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during World War II who performed Verdi's Requiem 16 times, as an act of defiance and resistance to their Nazi captors. Defiant Requiem is a complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration that tells this tale of audacious bravery.

Kym Verhovshek, a Weaverville resident, has been working with The Defiant Requiem Foundation and Carolina Jews for Justice to bring this program to Asheville. Kym’s father, George Baum, now a retired journalist, was one of the 15,000 children who were imprisoned in Terezín during World War II. To honor his legacy, Kym has been working with CJJ and other local groups and individuals to raise the funds needed for this program.

In the words of Ms. Verhovshek, “The story of Defiant Requiem is universal. As the daughter of a holocaust survivor and the mother of a 5-year-old boy, I am the bridge between my father’s legacy and my son’s future. It is through music and conversation that I am driven to make a difference.”

Led by Maestro Murry Sidlin, president of The Defiant Requiem Foundation and creator of this powerful concert/drama, Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín features the Asheville Symphony, Voices of Terezín Remembrance (a chorus comprised of singers from the Asheville Symphony Chorus, Asheville Choral Society, and other community members), and soloists Jennifer Check (soprano), Ann McMahon-Quintero (mezzo-soprano), Bruce Sledge (tenor), and Jongmin Park (bass).

Ticketing information and more for Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín is available in the calendar listing below.

Murry Sidlin and The Defiant Requiem Foundation also produced an Emmy-nominated documentary film narrated by Bebe Neuwirth that has been praised as a "gripping documentary" (Examiner.com), with "a very powerful message" (CNN). More information is at DefiantRequiem.org.

Saturday, June 1 at 7:30 pm

Thomas Wolfe Auditorium

87 Haywood Street

Asheville, NC 28801

Tickets on sale now at Ticketmaster.com

Please consider becoming a sponsor by visitinghttps://www.defiantrequiem.org/Asheville

Presented by The Defiant Requiem Foundation. Proceeds to benefit Carolina Jews for Justice.

Murry Sidlin, creator & conductor

Jennifer Check, soprano

Ann McMahon-Quintero, mezzo-soprano

Bruce Sledge, tenor

Jongmin Park, bass

Asheville Symphony

Voices of Terezín Remembrance

April 28: Defiant Requiem in DeKalb

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín

Sunday, April 28

at Northern Illinois University's Boutell Memorial Concert Hall

Complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem, interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration tells the moving story of courageous performances by prisoners in a WWII concentration camp

Praised by The New York Times as "Poignant...a monument to the courage of one man to foster hope among prisoners with little other solace," Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín will be performed at Northern Illinois University on Sunday, April 28, 2019 at 3:00 pm at Boutell Memorial Concert Hall (550 Lucinda Ave., DeKalb, IL). Complete details below.

The "extraordinarily beautiful and moving" concert/drama commemorates the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during World War II who performed Verdi's Requiem 16 times, as an act of defiance and resistance to their Nazi captors. Defiant Requiem is a complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration that tells this tale of audacious bravery.

Led by Maestro Murry Sidlin, president of The Defiant Requiem Foundation and creator of this powerful concert/drama, Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín features the Northern Illinois University Philharmonic, Northern Illinois University Concert Choir, Cor Cantiamo, McHenry County College Chorus, and Voices in Harmony. Soloists include Sarah Gartshore (soprano), Susan Platts (mezzo-soprano), Andrzej Stec (tenor), and Sam Hadley (bass).

Ticketing information and more for Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín is available in the calendar listing below.

Murry Sidlin and The Defiant Requiem Foundation also produced an Emmy-nominated documentary film narrated by Bebe Neuwirth that has been praised as a "gripping documentary" (Examiner.com), with "a very powerful message" (CNN). More information is at DefiantRequiem.org.

Sunday, April 28 at 3:00 pm

Boutell Memorial Concert Hall

550 Lucinda Avenue

DeKalb, IL 60115

Tickets are $10 for general admission, $5 for students and are available at http://www.niu.edu/music/

Presented by the Northern Illinois University School of Music and The Defiant Requiem Foundation with funding from the Gretchen M. Brooks University Residency Project

Murry Sidlin, creator & conductor

Sarah Gartshore, soprano

Susan Platts, mezzo-soprano

Andrzej Stec, tenor

Sam Hadley, bass-baritone

Northern Illinois University Philharmonic

Danko Drusko, director

Northern Illinois University Concert Choir

Eric A. Johnson, director of choral activities

Cor Cantiamo - Eric A. Johnson, founding artistic director

McHenry County College Chorus - Steven Szalaj, director

Voices In Harmony - Steven Szalaj, director

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín with the Pacific Symphony

April 16: Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa

April 17: Royce Hall at UCLA

Complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem, interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration tells the moving story of courageous performances by prisoners in a WWII concentration camp

Praised by The New York Times as "Poignant...a monument to the courage of one man to foster hope among prisoners with little other solace," Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín will be performed by the Pacific Symphony on April 16, 2019 at 8:00 pm at Segerstrom Concert Hall (600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA), and on April 17 at 8:00 pm at UCLA's Royce Hall (10745 Dickson Court, Los Angeles, CA). Proceeds from the performance on April 17 will benefit Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. Complete details below.

The "extraordinarily beautiful and moving" concert/drama commemorates the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during World War II who performed Verdi's Requiem 16 times, as an act of defiance and resistance to their Nazi captors. Defiant Requiem is a complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration that tells this tale of audacious bravery.

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín features the Pacific Symphony, Pacific Chorale (Robert Istad, artistic director), soloists Aga Mikolaj (soprano), Ann McMahon Quintero (mezzo-soprano), Edgaras Montvidas (tenor), and Nathan Stark(bass), actors John Rubinstein and David Prather, and Maestro Murry Sidlin, president of The Defiant Requiem Foundation and creator of this powerful concert/drama.

Ticketing information and more for Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín is available in the calendar listing below.

Murry Sidlin and The Defiant Requiem Foundation also produced an Emmy-nominated documentary film narrated by Bebe Neuwirth that has been praised as a "gripping documentary" (Examiner.com), with "a very powerful message" (CNN). More information is at DefiantRequiem.org.

Tuesday, April 16 at 8:00 pm

Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall

600 Town Center Drive

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Tickets range from $25 - $196 and are available atwww.pacificsymphony.org

Presented by the Pacific Symphony

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wednesday, April 17 at 8:00 pm

Royce Hall, UCLA

10745 Dickson Court

Los Angeles, CA 90095

Tickets range from $45 - $98 and are available atTicketmaster.com.

Presented by The Defiant Requiem Foundation and the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. Proceeds to benefit Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust.

For sponsorship packages, please contact Victoria Lonberg at victoria@lamoth.org or visit here.

Murry Sidlin, creator & conductor

John Rubinstein & David Prather, actors

Aga Mikolaj, soprano

Ann McMahon Quintero, mezzo-soprano

Edgaras Montvidas, tenor

Nathan Stark, bass-baritone

Pacific Symphony

Pacific Chorale

Robert Istad, artistic director

Feb 23: Defiant Requiem performance at IUP

Back to Press Releases

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín

Saturday, February 23

at Fisher Auditorium, Indiana PA

Complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem as performed in the Terezín Concentration Camp, interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration tells the moving story of courageous performances by the prisoners of a WWII concentration camp

Praised by The New York Times as "Poignant...a monument to the courage of one man to foster hope among prisoners with little other solace," Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín will be performed on February 23, 2019 at 7:30 pm at Fisher Auditorium(403 S. 11th Street) in Indiana, PA. 

The "extraordinarily beautiful and moving" concert/drama commemorates the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during World War II who performed Verdi's Requiem 16 times, as an act of defiance and resistance to their Nazi captors. Defiant Requiem is a complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration that tells this tale of audacious bravery. This performance features the full Verdi Requiem with the chorus and soloists accompanied by a single piano, as it was in Terezín.

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín features pianist Arlene Shrut with Colleen Ferguson on violin, the IUP Chorale and Penn State Altoona Ivyside Pride Vocal Ensemble, as well as soprano Annie Gill, mezzo-soprano Bonnie Cutsforth-Huber, tenor Tim Augustin, and bass Joseph Baunoch and actors Richard Kemp and Michael Schwartz. It will be conducted by Maestro Murry Sidlin, president of The Defiant Requiem Foundation and creator of this powerful concert/drama.

This performance of Defiant Requiem is presented by The Defiant Requiem Foundation, Indiana University of Pennsylvania Department of Music, and the Penn State Altoona Department of Arts and Humanities, with funding from the Gretchen M. Brooks University Residency Project.

Tickets for Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín are $10 general admission, $8 for seniors and $6 for students, anyone with a Military ID, and children under 18. Tickets are available online or in person at the The Lively Arts Ticket Office (in the lobby of the IUP Performing Arts Center, 403 S. 11th Street, Indiana, PA). 

Murry Sidlin and The Defiant Requiem Foundation also produced an Emmy-nominated documentary film narrated by Bebe Neuwirth that has been praised as a "gripping documentary" (Examiner.com), with "a very powerful message" (CNN). More information is at DefiantRequiem.org.