The Covenant: Citizenship through Music
Project Description
The Covenant is a large scale musical work for violin, piano, soprano, chorus and orchestra aiming to address current challenges in Holocaust education and denial. Composed by Israeli American violinist Ittai Shapira, it includes musical sections and references to the Kovno Ghetto, Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Neuengamme, Babi Yar and the forgotten camp of Transnistria. This new work is dedicated to and written for German pianist and curator Constanze Beckmann, who has recently and successfully performed and curated several projects for Holocaust NOW, as part of the Holocaust Education Week. It is a musical response to Verdi's Requiem, which was performed by 150 inmates at Theresienstadt 16 times, as an act of defiance and hope through music.
The composition honors and tells the stories of examples such as Beckmann's mentor Dr. Felicia Carmelly, who survived Transnistria and founded the Transnistria Survivor's Association and wrote her memoir "Across the Rivers of Memory" published by the Azrieli Foundation, Gorge Brady, who founded the VEDEM magazine at Theresienstadt, survived Auschwitz and went on to become a successful businessman in Canada, and it also includes the story of Aharon Barak who survived Kovno and went on to become the chief justice of Israel, as well as, several other survivor stories.
Musical Citizenship
By involving community and University choirs, The Covenant embodies a rounded and involving theatrical experience. The work will include sections referencing the stories of individual survivors and historical facts by means of a simple yet revealing text. Audiences and students can empathize, identify, and actively engage, with the material as a means of building Musical Citizenship. The Elmer Isler Singers, a professional choir, as well as the Amadeus Choir, a community choir, and a children‘s chorus from the Beth Torah Congregation will be involved in weeks of rehearsals, learning about this crucial topic.
Implementation
A number of directors and lecturers are interested in using the text and music for symposiums and classrooms: Judith Goldstein from "Humanity in Action", with whom Ittai Shapira collaborated at Carnegie Hall in 2015. Menhas Afridi, director of comparative genocide at the Manhattan College. Natasha Zaretsky, Ph.D, NYU and executive director of "Sound Potential," and Karen Zolko, Project Room 28, Brazil. We would like to develop online material as well- crucial historical facts related to the Holocaust, with music, narration, and written text highlighting examples of resilience and hope for students and families.
As we face rising antisemitism, racism, violence and discrimination of minorities, globally, we envision a collaboration between the Israeli, German, Canadian, Czech, Romanian, and Lithuanian Embassies to spread this message far and wide in a new era for Holocaust Education.
We seek to launch The Covenant in Toronto on May 30, 2021, as a long term project, on and off stage, starting at Koerner Hall, followed by a performance at Carnegie Hall in 2021 commemorating 80 years formation of the Transnistria camp. We are also planning to perform The Covenant in Romania, Lithuania, Germany, and Israel.
Solo Piano Clip from “The Covenant”- “The Messenger”: Constanze Beckmann