DURHAM, N.H. - The University of New Hampshire will reflect upon the Holocaust of European Jews in the 20th century with the "Echoes of the Holocaust" lecture and concert series that begins March 25, 2010.

"Echoes of the Holocaust" includes the Hans Heilbronner lecture and four music events featuring pieces written by composers who died in Hitler's concentration camps, works written in the camps and performed by prisoners themselves, and contemporary compositions inspired by these tragic events. "Echoes of the Holocaust" is supported by the Department of Music, the UNH Endowed Fund for Holocaust Education, and a grant from the UNH Parents Association.

All events, with the exception of the Nov. 14, 2010, concert, are free and open to the public. The concert on Nov. 14 will have a minimal admission charge, to be announced at a later date.

March 25, 2010
Heilbronner Lecture: "Music as a Means of Resistance in Nazi Concentration Camps"
5 p.m., Richards Auditorium, Murkland Hall 

Phillip Silver, professor at the University of Maine at Orono, will offer the Hans Heilbronner Lecture "Music as a Means of Resistance in Nazi Concentration Camps." Silver is an internationally acclaimed solo and collaborative artist who has performed with many distinguished international artists. As a member of the Jerusalem-based Van Leer Trio, Silver was a recipient of the distinguished Israel Prize for performance. Phillip studied with Katja Andy and Leonard Shure at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and earned a Ph.D. in musical arts from the University of Washington for research on the music of composer/pianist Ignaz Moscheles. Over the past decade, Silver has conducted research on music and musicians caught up in the Holocaust, presenting the results in lectures and recitals in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Israel.

The annual Hans Heilbronner lecture honors Emeritus Hans Heilbronner, who served the University of New Hampshire and the History Department with distinction from 1954 until 1991.  

March 28, 2010
Faculty Chamber Music Concert 
8 p.m., Bratton Recital Hall, Paul Creative Arts Center 

Jenni Cook (soprano) and Janet Polk (bassoon) perform Lori Laitman's I Never Saw Another Butterfly, based on poetry written by children who were killed in the Holocaust. Elizabeth Gunlogson will perform Messiaen's solo clarinet piece "Abyss of the Birds" from his Quartet for the End of Time. Messiaen was a prisoner of war after the fall of France, and he wrote this piece to be performed by fellow prisoners. Peggy Vagts and Arlene Kies will perform the Sonata for Flute and Piano (1927) by Erwin Schulhoff, a talented composer whose death in the concentration camp of Wulzburg cut short a very promising career.

April 16-18, 2010
UNH Opera 
April 16 and 17, 8 p.m., and April 18, 2010, 3 p.m., Bratton Recital Hall, Paul Creative Arts Center 

UNH's Opera Workshop, directed by David Ripley, begins with settings of passages from The Diary of Anne Frank and concludes with Viktor Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis, a one-act chamber opera written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. The grotesque character the Emperor of Atlantis, whose goal was a state of perpetual war, was a courageous satire of Adolf Hitler. Ullmann died in the gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

April 28, 2010
UNH Wind Symphony and UNH Concert Band 
8 p.m., Johnson Theatre, Paul Creative Arts Center 

Andrew Boysen conducts the Wind Symphony and Casey Goodwin conducts the Concert Band in this concert that premieres compositions by two UNH graduate alumni composers and an arrangement written by a master's student. Timothy Miles, '07, director of bands at Exeter High School, composed if this is a man, inspired by Primo Levi's book about his year in Auschwitz. Thomas Bourgault, '06, director of bands at Norwich (CT) Free Academy, composed The Island of Obsession, a piece that explores themes of obsession and atonement and incorporates the Jewish prayer melody "Kol Nidre." Other works on the program include Jack Stamp's Scenes from Terezin, as well as an arrangement by graduate student Becky Noyes. Noyes is arranging several movements of Lawrence Siegel's Kaddish for the Wind Symphony with soloist David Ripley.

Nov. 14, 2010
UNH Chamber Singers, Soloists, and Orchestra 
3 p.m., Johnson Theatre, Paul Creative Arts Center 

The Echoes of the Holocaust series concludes with a complete performance of Siegel's Kaddish by the UNH Chamber Singers, soloists including Jenni Cook and David Ripley, and orchestra under the direction of William Kempster. The text for the work was taken from interviews with Holocaust survivors. Siegel describes his work in these words, "Kaddish is not only about the past, but also about exploring our common humanity. It culminates in a message of hope and peace that extends beyond the lines of religion, race, and ethnic background."

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling more than 12,200 undergraduate and 2,200 graduate students.

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