“There they were — starving, mostly sick and living in horror
— and yet the arts and humanities were looked upon as
nutrition and elements of survival.”

— Murry Sidlin

TO EDUCATE
AND UPLIFT

The Michigan showings of the concert-drama
Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin will be
supplemented with a number of programs
supported by an honorary committee headed
by Joanne Danto and Arnold Weingarden.
“There has been a year of planning to
bring this programming together,” says
Congregation Shaarey Zedek’s Rabbi Aaron
Starr, the grandchild of Holocaust survivors.
“We are honored to partner in the hosting
of this series to educate and uplift the com-
munity.”
In partnership with the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra; the Anti-Defamation League,
Michigan Region; Cohn-Haddow Center for
Judaic Studies; Holocaust Memorial Center,
Zekelman Family Campus; Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit and more, the sched-
ule features:
April 26: “The ‘Model’ Concentration Camp
Theresienstadt” discussed by Amy Simon
of the Department of History and Jewish
Studies at Michigan State University, 7 p.m.
at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield.
(Registration required, call for cost.)
(248) 642-4618.
Through May 5: The Butterfly art exhibit
holds works by children from Congregation
Shaarey Zedek inspired by Defiant Requiem
and a 1942 poem by a child imprisoned in
Terezin and later killed at Auschwitz. Free.
(248) 357-5544.
April 30: Defiant Requiem documentary
screening, 7 p.m. at the Berman Center for
the Performing Arts in West Bloomfield. Free.
(248) 661-1900.
May 1: Discussion with Maestro Murry
Sidlin, 7 p.m. at Congregation Shaarey Zedek.
Free. (248) 357-5544.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: In the only surviving photo of the Terezin chorus, Schachter conducts prisoners in a rehearsal of Verdi’s Requiem for an upcoming
performance for the Red Cross inspection in 1944. A 2013 performance of Defiant Requiem in Prague. Murry Sidlin conducting.

Orchestra, Detroit Community Chorus
and four soloists the conductor has
worked with many times: Jennifer Check,
soprano; Ann McMahon Quintero, mezzo
soprano; Issachah Savage, tenor; and
Nathan Stark, bass.
Associated programs have been
planned to supplement the concert-
drama, including a discussion with Sidlin,
a screening of the Defiant Requiem docu-
mentary and an art exhibit. (See sidebar.)
“Coming to Detroit is really important
to us,” says Sidlin, who has made the pro-
gram the centerpiece of his career and
has led more than 40 performances of the
work since 2002.
“We look forward to bringing the mes-
sage and spirit of the Terezin prisoners,
survivors and those who didn’t survive, to
audiences in Detroit.
“No matter how many times we have
performed Defiant Requiem, we never
fully grasp the courage and dignity of the
Terezin performers. There they were —
starving, mostly sick and living in horror
— and the arts were looked upon as nutri-
tion and elements of survival.”
Often asked is why a composition

steeped in Catholic liturgy was chosen to
be performed at a concentration camp
where almost everyone was Jewish, but
the words had special impact in a 1944
performance.
Although prisoners presented the
work for Nazi officers and members of
the International Red Cross (as German
propaganda to show that Jewish prison-
ers were treated well), they were able to
sing “nothing shall remain unavenged”
and “from the ashes, the guilty man to be
judged” in front of their oppressors — in a
bold condemnation of the Nazis.
Defiant Requiem has a dominant
objective for the maestro: to ensure that
audiences hearing the original Requiem
— after experiencing the concert-drama
— should always think of the Terezin
choir and the sacrifices made by people
learning and performing this mammoth
composition under horrific conditions.
“Verdi’s Requiem was always a gripping
piece of music,” says Sidlin, who per-
formed it before creating Defiant Requiem.
“I never thought of it only as a religious
piece, although it is spiritually profound.
“If you’re not Catholic, it’s still spiritu-

ally profound. It’s beautifully written, and
I think it’s one of Verdi’s great composi-
tions. Although I had liked conducting
this work before [starting this project], it
now has a deeper and more profound and
memorable meaning for me.”
Sidlin, who received the Distinguished
Alumnus Award from the Peabody
Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University,
occasionally is invited to do a concert
that doesn’t relate to the Holocaust. The
maestro thinks of these performances as
less-intense “holiday” work that offers a
sometimes “healthy” break.
In addition to Defiant Requiem, Sidlin
has developed a second concert-drama
focused on Terezin, Hours of Freedom: The
Story of the Terezin Composer. It presents
music by 15 imprisoned composers and
combines video, music and narrative.
When the maestro holds his discussion
session, he will cover the origins of the
cultural society in the concentration camp
and delve into the ways prisoners held lec-
tures to advance intellectual interests.
“In my lecture, I try to play some of the
music that was composed at Terezin,”
he says. Some small instruments were

brought by musicians as they entered
confinement and other instruments were
used as allowed from Nazi confiscations.
There was even a new music studio that
had 20 composers at work.
“I have never given a performance
of the Verdi Requiem in the form of
the Defiant Requiem or a speech about
Terezin where there wasn’t somebody
with a strong Terezin connection in the
audience,” says the maestro, who has con-
ducted concerts with the Ann Arbor and
Grand Rapids symphonies.
“Someone always comes up to me after
a performance or talk to tell me about an
aunt, uncle, grandfather or somebody else
imprisoned or sometimes lost.” •

details

Defiant Requiem will be performed 7:30
p.m. Thursday, May 4, at Shaarey Zedek in
Southfield and 8 p.m. Saturday, May 6, and 3
p.m. Sunday, May 7, at Orchestra Hall in De-
troit. $25 adults and $10 children at Shaarey
Zedek; $15 starting price at Orchestra Hall.
(313) 576-5111; dso.org/requiem.

jn

April 20 • 2017

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