Held on April 20, 2017
This program considers the role of music in combating genocide-imposed silence and brings into dialogue the diversity of historical and current experiences of genocide and exile. Featured are exile-inspired works by refugee composers (Hans Eisler, Frédéric Chopin, and Dino Rešidbegović); art songs by Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert set to Goethe’s and Eichendorff’s poetry on exile; a 1942 piano trio by Dmitri Shostakovich; a quartet by Brooklyn College faculty member, Dr. Ramin Heydarbeygi, composed in 2015 and set to Persian poetry dealing with refugee life and exile; premiere of the commissioned piano trio by Dr. Brégégère based on melodies from The Stonehill Jewish Song Collection, the newly available archive of songs of Holocaust refugees; and a presentation by Dr. Litroff and the QCC Jazz Ensemble of Jazz standards associated with Frances ‘Chickie’ Ishihara White, a singer who began her career in the Minidoka Japanese internment camp in the 1940’s.
André Brégégère is a composer, educator, and visual artist living in Queens, NY. He is an established specialist of the music and theoretical writings of Belgian composer Henri Pousseur, and recently co-authored a chapter on the pedagogy of Genocide and Displacement studies in the music undergraduate curriculum (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). More broadly, his research interests include post-war serialism and post-tonal theory, with a focus on modern theories of harmony and voice leading.
Dr. Jennifer Gliere was awarded a Master's and Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. She has appeared in recital and oratorio in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, and throughout the United States. Dr. Gliere is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Queensborough Community College, CUNY.
Dr. Mirna Lekić is a pianist and educator living in New York City. She graduated with high honors from the Eastman School of Music, the Mannes College of Music, and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where she earned a doctorate with a dissertation focusing on the music of Claude Debussy. Dr. Lekić serves as an Associate Professor of Music at Queensborough Community College and as Associate Faculty in Piano at Columbia University.
Dr. Scott Litroff is a saxophonist recognized for his equal passions as a performer and educator in both jazz and classical styles. Dr. Litroff received Doctor of Musical Arts and Bachelor of Arts Degrees from Stony Brook University, and a Master of Music Degree from the Mannes College of Music. He is currently an Associate Professor of Music at Queensborough Community College, CUNY.
Ensemble 365: soprano Sara Paar, violinist Karen Rostron, cellist Marta Bedkowska-Reilly, pianist Mirna Lekic.
Ensemble 365, The American Prize National Honorable Mention finalist in the Chamber Ensemble category, was founded in 2012 at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Its members perform regularly in concert halls and festivals in the US and abroad. For more about Ensemble 365, visit http://mirnalekic.com/projects.
The CD liner notes assignment, completed by the students enrolled in Dr. Lekic's Introduction to Music course was designed as a complement to the "Echoes of Exile" program, with the aim of building on the content of the concert and enlarging the relevant repertoire through the multicultural lens of the QCC community. Each student was asked to contribute two compositions dealing with exile, displacement, and the refugees, and to write accompanying liner notes. Putting to use music’s particular power to recognize individual stories, this assignment also served as a means of unifying many diverse styles, languages, and perspectives, across time and through a common theme. The resulting class playlist, featured below, includes music addressing the Holocaust, conflicts and mass displacement in India/Pakistan (during the partition), Iran (after the 1979 Revolution), Ireland, Cuba, Colombia, and Syria, as well as exile experienced by African Americans and the Roma in their home countries. We hope that this archive will prove a valuable resource for course enrichment and further exploration of multiple musical traditions.