74 | AUGUST 31 • 2023 

T

im Lorsch has built 
a long career playing 
string instruments, com-
posing music and joining pro-
grams featuring famous singers 
around the country. In recent 
years, he came to use his talents 
in telling about the ways his 
family survived and prospered 
in escaping the Nazis and com-
ing to America.
Lorsch wrote music and 
narrative for a presentation 
inspired by receiving a suitcase 
in 2016 that had belonged to his 
Great Uncle Julius. The suitcase, 
found in the Czech Republic, 
had been taken to Auschwitz by 
his uncle, who was killed there. 
The presentation, titled The 
Suitcase: One Family’s Story 
of Survival, has been present-
ed at various centers around 
the country and comes to the 
Zekelman Holocaust Center in 
Farmington Hills in a free pre-
sentation at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, 

Sept. 10. 
The program features 
Lorsch’s original music played 
separately from the pictures and 
videos he shows as part of the 
narrative recalling family expe-
riences. Computers enter into 
the production, and he explains, 
at the beginning, how he uses 
the technique of looping to 
accommodate what he wants to 
communicate. 

“There’s sadness in my show, 
but that’s not what it dwells on,
” 
said Lorsch, whose home, after 
extensive travels, is in Nashville. 
“The show is positive in nature.
”
Lorsch, 73, who previously 
has performed with groups in 

Michigan for productions unre-
lated to his personal history, has 
also introduced The Suitcase 
at the Calumet Theatre. The 
invitation came from a friend 
known in Nashville and having 
membership on the theater 
board. 
Among the states he has vis-
ited for presentations since 2018 
have been Tennessee, Texas, 
Indiana and Illinois.

“I’ll tell a story for two or 
three minutes, and then I’ll 
play a musical rendition of 
that story for maybe five min-
utes,” explained Lorsch, who 
reports performing in general 
concerts with stars such as 

Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban 
and Pat Green. 
“The first story is basically 
the (past) assimilation when 
in Germany the Jews were 
really allowed to become part 
of the social fabric. The sec-
ond story is the coming of the 
Nazis. The third story is the 
Kindertransport,” he said. 
Lorsch revealed that his 
mother was saved by the 
Kindertransport. His father, he 
explained, had a more unusual 
exit from the Nazis, and that 
was done through Switzerland. 
He tells how his grandparents 
succeeded in America, how he 
grew up with children of sur-
vivors and how he succeeded 
in America.
Lorsch did not write lyrics for 

Details 

The Suitcase: One Family’s 
Story of Survival will be 
presented for free at 2:30 
p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10, at the 
Zekelman Holocaust Center in 
Farmington Hills. Registration 
is required by going to 
holocaustcenter.org. 

ARTS&LIFE
MUSIC

Tim Lorsch brings 
The Suitcase to the Zekelman 
Holocaust Center Sept. 10.

A Story of 
Survival

SUZANNE CHESSLER 
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

“IT’S A UNIQUE, MODERN, UNUSUAL 

WAY TO PRESENT MUSIC.”

— TIM LORSCH

COURTESY OF TIM LORSCH

Tim 
Lorsch

