Event

Honoring Refugee Composers: Crossing Borders Music

Sunday, December 16, 2018
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Petty Auditorium

We honor refugees around the world in this performance of music written by or about refugees.

Hear the proud Refugees Anthem by Moutaz Arian.

Be stirred by Tatev Amiryan’s Tristesse, an homage to the famous Armenian musician Komitas, which expresses Komitas’ pain and sorrow as the Armenian Genocide forced him from his home and caused him to suffer a mental breakdown as he lived in exile for the rest of his life.

Hear Ruth Schonthal’s String Quartet In Memoriam Holocaust. As an American Holocaust refugee, Schonthal spent much of her life avoiding writing music about the Holocaust so as not to trivialize it. Late in her life, she finally decided to write this piece to encourage its remembrance and memorialize its victims.

Mahdis Kashani’s And the Moses Drowned is written in memory of Aylan Kurdi and all children who have died in war. Mahdis says, “These children are innocent like Moses, but without any savior.”

Zvonimir Nagy’s exquisite Fall, Leaves, Fall and Miguel del Aguila’s exciting Presto II round out an intensely stirring program.