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UK Premiere of Defiant Requiem: Verdi At Terezín
Durham Cathedral: one of the great buildings of Europe.
The UK premiere of Maestro Murry Sidlin’s Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín will be performed on Saturday, January 28, 2017, at 7:30pm in Durham Cathedral, “one of the great buildings of Europe” and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The performance is being given in observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day (which is January 27th) and will feature soprano Gweneth-Ann Rand, mezzo-soprano Alison Kettlewell, tenor Philip Sheffield, and bass Keel Watson. Actors Ali Pritchard and Jane Arnfield will portray the roles of “Rafael Schächter” and “The Lecturer”, respectively. The orchestra and chorus will be the combined forces of the Durham Choral Society Orchestra and the Durham University Orchestral Society, and the Durham Choral Society and Durham University Chamber Choir, under the direction of choirmaster Michael Summers.
Presented by The Forge, an arts and education organization with which The Defiant Requiem Foundation has collaborated on multiple projects since 2014, the concert will be part of a larger framework entitled “Defiant Voices.” This creative arts program, about memory, resilience and justice, will involve artists and arts and cultural organizations, universities, children and young people, adults and communities. In particular, Durham and Northumbria Universities will have significant involvement in the both concert and overall project with student musicians performing in the orchestra and chorus for Defiant Requiem, and from an academic standpoint with faculty helping to develop the educational portion of the “Defiant Voices” program.
The “Defiant Voices” program and this performance of Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín are supported by a grant from the Foundation’s University Residency Project funded by Gretchen M. Brooks. Concert information is available at defiantrequiem.org and tickets can purchased online here.