Brundibár Arts Festival: Events 2023

 

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SATURDAY, 20TH JANUARY 2024, 19:30
Concert kindly supported by Cavatina for under 26s
"Musique d'un autre monde" Opening Concert
Newcastle University Kings Hall
Artists:

Violin: Bartosz Woroch, Alexandra Raikhlina
Viola: Nathan Braude
Cello: Bartholomew LaFollette
Piano: Aleksandra Hałat, Katya Apekisheva
Flute: Ania Karpowicz
Harp: Richard Allen

Alexandre Tansman fled the Nazis for America in the late 1930s; Wladyslaw Szpilman was a Polish pianist and classical composer of Jewish descent. Szpilman is widely known as the central figure in the 2002 Roman Polanski film The Pianist, which was based on Szpilman's autobiographical account of how he survived the German occupation of Warsaw and the Holocaust; Simon (Szymon) Laks (1 November 1901 – 11 December 1983) became head of the prisoners' orchestra at Birkenau-Auschwitz; Tadeusz Kassern survived the war in Lviv, Cracow and Warsaw, using false papers to hide from the Gestapo; Karol Rathaus fled Berlin in 1932 on the eve of the Nazis taking power.

Programme:
 
Szpilman: Suite for piano
Laks: Quartet no.3
Tansman: Sonatina da Camera
Interval
Kassern: Flute Sonatina
Tansman: Pour les Enfants
Rathaus: Piano Trio
 
SUNDAY, 21ST JANUARY 2024, 19:30
Concert kindly supported by Cavatina for under 26s
"Musique d'un autre monde" Second Concert
Newcastle University Kings Hall
Artists:

Violin: Alexandra Raikhlina, Bartosz Woroch
Viola: Nathan Braude
Cello: Liubov Ulybysheva, Bartholomew LaFollette, Gabriel Waite, Seth Collin
Piano: Katya Apekisheva, Aleksandra Hałat
Clarinet: Dov Goldberg
Percussion: Jan Bradley

Alexandre Tansman fled the Nazis for America in the late 1930s; Wladyslaw Szpilman was a Polish pianist and classical composer of Jewish descent. Szpilman is widely known as the central figure in the 2002 Roman Polanski film The Pianist, which was based on Szpilman's autobiographical account of how he survived the German occupation of Warsaw and the Holocaust; Simon (Szymon) Laks (1 November 1901 – 11 December 1983) became head of the prisoners' orchestra at Birkenau-Auschwitz; Jerzy Fitelberg escaped the Nazis to America in 1940, through Paris; Karol Rathaus fled Berlin in 1932 on the eve of the Nazis taking power; Mieczyslaw Weinberg fled to the Soviet union as the war began, but lost his parents and younger sister Esther in the Trawniki concentration camp.

Programme:
 
Tansman: La Danse de la Sorciere
Rathaus: Quartet n.4
Fitelberg: Nacht Music op.9
Interval
Tansman: Deux Mouvements for Cello Quartet
Weinberg: Piano Trio op.24
 
MONDAY, 22ND JANUARY 2024
Education Project


 
THURSDAY, 25TH JANUARY 2024, 19:30
"A Child in Striped Pyjamas”
Gosforth Civic Theatre
A Child in Striped Pyjamas

An Opera by Noah Max

Based upon The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

By special arrangement with Miramax

Artists:

Director: Guido Martin-Brandis
Conductor: Robert Max

Cast:

Noam Pnini, Soprano – German Child
Eleanor Oldfield, Mezzo-soprano – Jewish Child
Xavier Hetherington, Tenor – Lieutenant Kotler
Jeremy Huw Williams, Baritone – The Father

Musicians

Violin: Kyra Humphreys, Alexandra Raikhlina
Viola: Nathan Braude
Cello: Gabriel Waite
Clarinet: Dove Goldberg
Trumpet: Imogen Whitehead

John Boyne’s masterpiece The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas still features regularly on international bestseller lists nearly two decades after its initial publication in 2006. Boyne’s story is a symbolic exploration of one reason why the Holocaust remains so traumatic: it demonstrates to future generations the relentlessly organised barbarity of which humanity is capable.


This chamber opera addresses the Holocaust in a way audiences of every age can engage with. The project has been supported by internationally-renowned organisations including the Community Security Trust and the Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust.

 
FRIDAY, 26TH JANUARY 2024, 11:00
Care Home Performance
Care
 
FRIDAY, 26TH JANUARY 2024, 19:30
Jazz Event: A homage to the musicians of Warsaw Ghetto
Globe, Newcastle
Artists:

Emma Fisk - Violin
Jamie McCredie - Guitar
Abbie Finn - Percussion
Faye MacCalman - Saxophone
Andy Champion – Double bass
Graham Hardy - Trumpet
Jason Holcomb- Trombone
We will be looking specifically at music influenced by Jazz within Warsaw and the Warsaw Ghetto: we will include pieces such as “Mary” and "Kocham twoje usta" by J. Kagan. From the Karasiński & Kataszek Jazz-Tango Orchestra we will perform several pieces. We’ll also incorporate pieces associated with the singer and songwriter Diana Blumenfeld. Additionally, we will include some American ragtime which would have been performed in Warsaw at the time as well as other popular songs of the era from composers and musicians such Irving Berlin and Louis Armstrong.
 
SATURDAY, 27TH JANUARY 2024, 13:00
Cobweb Orchestra Concert
Jesmond United Reform Church
Artists:

Conductor: Anrew Jackson
Soloist: Iona Brown

Cobweb Orchestra is the only amateur orchestra in the country brave enough to tackle the unusual repertoire explored during our festival. This year, they will be performing the Szymon Laks Poeme for violin and orchestra with Royal Northern Sinfonia's Iona Brown as the soloist. Szymon Laks was incarcerated at Birchenough-Auschwitz where he became the leader of the man's orchestra.

Programme:
 
Gerson Overture in D major
Szymon Laks: Poem for violin and Orchestra
Schubert symphony no 8 "Unfinished"
 
SATURDAY, 27TH JANUARY 2024, 20:00
"A Child in Striped Pyjamas”
Second Peformance
Gosforth Civic Theatre
A Child in Striped Pyjamas

An Opera by Noah Max

Based upon The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

By special arrangement with Miramax

 
SUNDAY, 28TH JANUARY 2024, 19:30
Concert kindly supported by Cavatina for under 26s
“Fragments of a Diary”, Closing Concert dedicated to Josima Feldschuh
Jesmond United Reform Church
Artists:

Violin: Magdalena Filipczak, Alexandra Raikhlina
Viola: Nathan Braude
Cello: Robert Max
Tenor: Alex Aldren
Piano: Nicola Eimer, Yoshi Kawamura

Josima Feldschuh was a wunderkind pianist and composer from a Jewish family in Warsaw. She died in 1943 at the age of 15 whilst fleeing Warsaw Ghetto. Josima would talk about how she wanted to become a composer one day, to “prove the world” that women are not only capable of playing pieces written by others, but also of composing music themselves.


She left a manuscript of perfectly handwritten 17 piano pieces which she composed from as early as age 9 up to her death. These are currently kept at the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem.


We have selected four of those pieces which will be interspersed throughout the Closing Concert programme. The closing piece will be Brundibár Arts Festival Commission 2024 dedicated to Josima. The piece will be for piano quintet and tenor. Sections from Jasima’s father’s diary will be used for the vocal part which will be sang in Yiddish.


We have commissioned the piece to be written by Ukranian composer Volodymyr Runchak who is currently a war refugee in Poland near Warsaw.

Programme:
 
Josimah Feldschuh : Bal Ptaszkow -piano
Chopin: Polish songs - tenor and piano
Josimah Feldschuh : Mazurka no.6 - piano
R. Panufnik: Votive - string quartet
Josimah Feldschuh : Nocturne in G minor - piano
Szymanowski: Trois Chansons op.32 – tenor and piano
Interval
Josimah Feldschuh : Shabbattiada -piano
Bacewicz: Piano Qunitet
Volodymyr Runchak: Brundibár Arts Festival Special Commission 2024 “Fragments of a Diary” dedicated to Josima