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Boys Chorus celebrates inspiring Holocaust music, poetry
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Photo courtesy of Ragazzi Boys Chorus
In the midst of tragedy and horror, art and music give voice and form to joy and beauty.
The Ragazzi Boys Chorus presents an inspiring concert based on the poems and illustrations by Jewish children in the Holocaust at 5 p.m., Sun., June 14 at the Burlingame United Methodist Church, 1443 Howard Ave, Burlingame. The Songs of Peace concert features I Never Saw Another Butterfly by Charles Davidson, based on poems and illustrations created by Jewish children in the Holocaust.
The Ragazzi Chorus will also sing traditional Jewish classical and folk music accompanied by a Klezmer band as well as other pieces that celebrate peace and reconciliation.
Calling the concert a reminder of humanity’s resiliency, Artistic Director Joyce Kiel said that the idea came after talking with a friend. She said that while many groups include a token Hanukkah song in Christmas songs, there is much more to the rich Jewish heritage of music. “This program feeds my desire to show how music can make an impact,” she explained.
“I was aware of the poems and music and decided to make them the center piece of the program,” she said.
The musical selections in Songs of Peace reveals to the audience a nuance of moods and tones, from wistfulness to despair to playful celebration of life’s small moments. The concert richly highlights the human spirit even in the face of the most unthinkable tragedy. The young authors of the poems incorporated in I Never Saw Another Butterfly were children imprisoned in the Terezin Concentration Camp during World War II.
In a film about their experience, Terezin survivors recall how creating music and art gave them a sense of power because no one could stop them from creating and they were able to find joy and happiness in the middle of horror.
Terezin was unique from other concentration camps in that it was built as a decoy, intended to fool the Red Cross into thinking that Hitler had no evil intent toward the Jews. Filling the ghetto with musicians and artists to maintain the deception caused Terezin’s culture to flourish, despite the horrific living conditions that served as these children’s gruesome muse. Of the 15,000 children under the age of fifteen that passed through the Terezin Concentration Camps between 1942 and 1944, less than 100 survived.
Selections of their poetry and artwork will be on display, a chilling reminder of the maturity that comes to the very young when faced with unspeakable adversity. The addition of a traditional Klezmer band adds the flavor of the Pale of Settlement, where most Eastern European Jews can trace their ancestry back hundreds of years.
The Songs of Peace Concert concludes the 21st Anniversary Season for the Ragazzi Boys Chorus which features more than 170 singers from 86 schools in 26 Bay Area communities, and performs traditional and contemporary works. Ragazzi has performed with the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony, Opera San Jose, West Bay Opera, and has toured throughout the United States and internationally. In 2000, Ragazzi was honored for its contribution to the San Francisco Symphony’s Grammy Award–winning recording of Stravinsky’s Perséphone, and has produced four CDs: Good News! 10 Years of Ragazzi Singing, A Holiday Collection, Canciones de Alabanza, and the recent Magnificat, My Spirit Rejoices.
Tickets are $25 for reserved seating, $15 for general, $12 for seniors and $10 for students. For tickets and information, call 650.342.8785 or visit www.ragazzi.org.
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