Music of Remembrance mostly focuses on remembering the Holocaust through musical events, commissions, recordings and educational workshops. But the Seattle-based performing arts organization sometimes looks beyond atrocities committed against Jews during World War II.
The May 24 “Voices of Witness” concert at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music includes a pair of new works by composers Ryuichi Sakamoto and Christophe Chagnard reflecting on the imprisonment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II.
Based on a famous poem by the 20th-century Japanese poet Kiyoko Nagase, Sakamoto’s Snow Falls employs melodies from the composer’s score for the movie Nagasaki: Memories of My Son.
Chagnard uses traditional Japanese and classical Western instruments in his multimedia piece Gaman, which explores the words and images of artists and writers held captive at the Minidoka camp in Idaho.
The program, which features two additional works about the Holocaust, will be performed by a chamber ensemble comprised of Seattle Symphony players; vocalists Erich Parce, Roslyn Barak and Ann Moss; and taiko drummers Ringtaro and Asako Tateishi.
