Holocaust Education Week - Closing Night ceremony - ARC Ensemble concert

The reclamation of the music lost or marginalized because of the death or exile of hundreds of European composers is central to the ARC Ensemble’s artistic mission. The retrieval, appraisal and performance of this repertoire is part of a movement aimed at post-Shoah musical reparations and a cultural Tikkun Olam (act to repair the world). The ARC Ensemble (Artists of the Royal Conservatory) views the resuscitation of these lost works as both a musical and moral imperative. In the process, these discoveries lead us to develop a more accurate overview of the history and development of music during the 20th century.

The ARC Ensemble’s concert includes Mieczysław Weinberg settings of Yiddish texts by Shmuel Halkin, whose Holocaust poetry is as powerful as it is touching. Szymon Laks, who survived Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau, composed his Quintet for Piano and Strings shortly after liberation. Given the context of its creation, its optimism and good humour are utterly extraordinary. The third major work in the programme is an early Quartet for Piano and Strings by Paul Ben-Haim. Widely regarded as one of the fathers of Israeli music, this performance of the work is the first since 1932.

Closing Night of Holocaust Education Week will include a commemorative program on the 74th anniversary of Kristallnacht with a candle lighting ceremony and the participation of Canadian War Veterans in honour of Remembrance Day.

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