AUGUST 31 • 2023 | 75

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. 

his presentation. Instead, he 
relies on the narrative and the 
music he wrote. He separates 
them to establish mood so the 
audience can enter their own 
thoughts into the program-
ming.
“The computers are press-
ing record, play, repeat, stop,” 
he said. “They’re doing all 
the things that a recording 
engineer might do, but I’ve 
preprogrammed this thing. 
Though I’ve composed the 
arrangements in advance, all 
the music is live. It’s a unique, 
modern, unusual way to pres-
ent music.”
Born in New York, Lorsch 
moved on to New Jersey with 
his family. He studied music at 
San Francisco State University 
and lived in Nevada and 
North Carolina before going 
to Nashville in 1994. His early 
introduction to music came 
through his family — his 
father on piano and violin, 
his mother on piano and his 
grandmother on violin. 
Although he had been 
thinking about doing a 
Holocaust program after hear-
ing interview tapes recorded 

by his cousins, he looked for 
a way to do a one-man per-
formance and was inspired by 
the techniques of a one-person 
performance by a cellist.
“I’m not affiliated with a 
temple, but I belong to the 
Jewish Federation,
” he said. “I 
go to events, and I also work 
with the National Holocaust 
Memorial as a volunteer. I 
also work with the Tennessee 
Holocaust Commission.
”
Lorsch and his wife, Karen, 
have two children, Kayla and 
Ryan. Their son lives in Grand 
Rapids and has a computer 
career, although he also plays 
instruments. 
“I’ve written a lot of music 
over the years, so that was 
something I knew how to do,
” 
he said. ”I’ve never written 
anything with words before, so 
I did a lot of rewriting. 
“Learning how to write 
was extremely challenging for 
me. To be able to put all these 
stories down and write took a 
great deal. My cousin, who was 
a copy editor for the Baltimore 
Sun, whipped it into shape, 
and I’m deeply indebted to 
her.
” 

Lorsch performing 
The Suitcase

COURTESY OF TIM LORSCH

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