The Shoah Songbook –
Music of Remembrance

The Shoah Songbook is a concert evening celebrating the power of memory, music and resistance. Likht Ensemble, featuring Canadian soprano Jaclyn Grossman and – replacing American pianist/composer Nate Ben-Horin who had to cancel his appearance – Spencer Kryzanowski. Their duo is dedicated to uncovering and performing the works of Jewish composers whose lives and legacies were cut short during World War Two.

Drawn from camps and ghettos of across Central and Eastern Europe, their repertoire ranges from the modernist lieder of Edwin Geist and Viktor Ullmann, to the Cabaret songs of Martin Roman and Karel Švenk, to the intimately haunting lullabies of Ilse Weber in new arrangements, to examples of Yiddish tango and energetic, klezmer-inflected folk music. Many of their pieces have rarely if ever been performed in concert. These songs, and their fascinating backstories, showcase the vital spark that allows creativity — and hope — in the midst of desperation.

In the words of Terezin composer Viktor Ullmann, “By no means did we sit weeping on the banks of the waters of Babylon, but our endeavor with respect to the arts was commensurate with our will to live.”