Fractured lives: music of the Holocaust

Performing the Jewish Archive, based at Leeds University in the UK, is a three-year Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project working to explore hidden archives, uncover and perform lost works, and create a legacy for the future.

Pianist Pieter Grobler presents a concert of Victor Ullmann’s Lieder with mezzo soprano, Minette du Toit-Pearce and soprano, Lauren Dasappa, on Saturday September 16, at 8pm, in the Fismer Hall, Stellenbosch.

Ullmann studied composition under Arnold Schoenberg and was a member of  Alexander Zemlinsky’s New German Theatre.

Ullmann made important contributions to both Czech and German cultural life as a composer, conductor, pianist and music critic. 

Ullmann and his family were forcibly moved to the Theresienstadt ghetto on September 8, 1942.

He continued to compose music until his final deportation to Auschwitz in October 1944. It is believed that he was murdered a few days after his arrival at the camp.

The concert will open with a selection of piano pieces by the 12-year-old Josima Feldschuh, a child prodigy from Warsaw who died equally tragically at the age of 15.

It will be followed by works of Ullmann, who is by any account a masterful composer. Ullman’s music was often dedicated to his dearly beloved wife, and through all the hardship of these fractured lives, the concert programme ultimately celebrates love prevailing over all.

Tickets cost R140, and R100 for students and pensioners, and are available at Computicket and at the door.

For more information contact Fiona Grayer at concerts@sun.ac.za or 021 808 2358.