A unique and profound recreation of Verdi’s Requiem as performed by prisoners of the Terezin concentration camp in Nazi Germany brings together current and past students of UW Music, community musicians, theater professionals and guest conductor and creator Murry Sidlin in two upcoming performances of Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín.
Performed internationally to great acclaim and the subject of a 2012 documentary broadcast widely on public television, Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin is a complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration.
Praised by the New York Times as "a monument to the courage of one man to foster hope among prisoners with little other solace," Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín 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.
The production, which concludes the UW Music 2016-17 concert season, will be presented June 2 at Meany Theater and June 3 at the Tacoma Armory, with conductor/creator Sidlin leading the University of Washington Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Singers, University Chorale, Tacoma Symphony Voices, and members of the Seattle Jewish Chorale, as well as noted Northwest vocalists Kimberly Giordano, Sarah Mattox, Eric Neuville (all of whom are current or former UW Voice students), and Clayton Brainerd. Adrien Gamache & Tadd Morgan, actors with Seattle Jewish Theater Company, provide additional narration.
Ticket information and more details are available here.