Held on April 16, 2015
During this event, Queensborough Community College, CUNY, Music and Dance students performed in collaboration with the MOTÝL Chamber Ensemble at the Queensborough Performing Arts Center (QPAC). A composition was written by Dr. Bjorn Berkhout, Professor and Chair of QCC's Music Department, for the QCC Chorus and the MOTÝL Ensemble. Based on Jewish prayer, the piece followed a musical structure similar to the experience one has at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., where the visitor follows a specific person’s life to see if s/he survived the Holocaust. In the composition, various vocal performers become silent as the piece develops leaving only a few survivors at the end. The MOTÝL Ensemble provide an additional layer of music, as they offer musical depictions of the increasingly horrific events that culminated in Hitler’s Final Solution.
Dr. Steven Dahlke, Professor of Music at QCC, rehearsed the chorus and QCC Dance Professors Emily Berry and Aviva Geismar choreographed a dance component that was performed by QCC dance students. Music was used as a form of expression by victims of the Holocaust. MOTÝL’s "Music from Terezin" presentation included a description of the musical and artistic life of prisoners in the Terezin/Theriesenstadt ghetto. In addition, there was a multimedia presentation composed of photographs of daily life in Terezin, as well as original watercolors, drawings and poems from children in the ghetto. This multimedia approach facilitated a connection between the audience and the history behind the music that was performed.
Dr. Bjorn Berkhout is a Professor of Music and Chair of the Music Department at Queensborough Community College, CUNY. He holds a Masters in Cello Performance from the University of Minnesota and a Doctorate in Composition from Northwestern University. Dr. Berkhout's compositions have received numerous national and international awards with performances across the United States and Europe.
Dr. Steven Dahlke is a Professor of Music at Queensborough Community College, CUNY. He received his Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from University of Southern California. Dr. Dahlke has published on Affective Education and its application to choral music in the American Choral Directors Association's journals Choral Journal and ChorTeach, and in contributed chapters in edited volumes published by Palgrave.
Emily Berry is a Certified Movement Analyst, and has an MFA in Dance from George Mason University. She also holds Bachelor degrees in Dance Arts, as well as Women's Studies and Political Science from the University of Michigan. Berry teaches Improvisation, Contact Improvisation, Choreography, Foundations of Dance Movement, Dance Workshop, and all levels of Ballet and Modern Dance.
Aviva Geismar is a certified GYROKINESIS and GYROTONIC instructor and has done extensive teaching for bodywork professionals. She holds a BFA from New York University and an MFA from the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin. Geismar teaches Choreography, Improvisation, Dance Workshop, Foundations of Dance Movement, Repertory, and all levels of Ballet and Modern Dance.