Singers honor Nazi-banned music

While listening to some musical recordings a professor gave her last summer, MU graduate teaching assistant Emily Edgington came across a piece of music by Erich Zeisl, a Jewish composer who was forced to abandon his career during the Nazi regime.

Edgington, who conducts MU’s Chamber Singers, was moved and inspired by Zeisl’s piece, “Requiem Ebraico” (Hebrew Requiem), and decided it was the piece of music she wanted the choir to work on next.

“Once I decided that Zeisl was the one, I needed a tying theme,” Edgington said.

After doing some research, with the help of Paul Crabb, director of choral activities at MU, Edgington found that there were a number of composers like Zeisl whose work was deemed “degenerate” by the Nazis during World War II.

“I decided that I really wanted to design a program that paid tribute to these composers that were deemed degenerate, that were seen as not German or unpure,” Edgington said.

In December, Edgington began building an entire program of “degenerate music,” using both older composers whose music was later banned by the Nazis, and composers like Zeisl who composed during World War II.

The program she assembled — “Silenced Voices: A Concert of Remembrance” — will be performed at 3 p.m. today. The performance, which signals the start of Holocaust Remembrance Week, is free and open to the public.

Jake Kohut, a member of the Chamber Singers, said choir members have been really excited to get to work on this program, which they have been practicing since January.

“She explained how so many of these works were purged from society during World War II. It settled into us that we would be doing something special and commemorative to help remember the people who went through the Holocaust.”

Edgington decided early on that if the concert was to have the impact she wanted, needed help.

“The concert is not just focused on music,” Edgington said. “I wanted the help of a bunch of different groups that can participate to create a unique opportunity.”

The Chamber Orchestra will collaborate with the Chamber Singers on the 18-minute Zeisl piece, which makes up the second half of the program. Edgington also enlisted the help of Congregation Beth Shalom and MU’s Hillel Center to help sponsor the program and provide guidance, and she received sponsorships from the Arts and Science Alumni Organization, Center for Arts and Humanities, Columbia Office of Cultural Affairs, MU School of Music and Sigma Alpha Iota.

Carol Tellerman, a Holocaust survivor, will also be at the concert and will give a brief presentation. Tellerman is the only living survivor of the Zamir Chorale, a Polish choral group that toured Europe singing classical works in Yiddish. It was disbanded in 1938 by the Nazi regime.

“This is a unique cultural experience that we rarely get in the U.S.,” Edgington said. “We get to all get together to give something special to the Columbia community.”

Edgington said she hopes that people who come to the concert will leave more aware of the tragedies of the Holocaust.

Crabb said he hopes the concert makes people think about what can be done to make the present world better, instead of just thinking the Holocaust and World War II were terrible tragedies that happened in the past.

“We have to keep this knowledge of this horrible time present in our minds,” Crabb said. “We want to use this experience so we can now respond more intelligently to the difficult issues in our society today.”

Yet both Edgington and Crabb said the concert is not just meant to be sad. They also hope the audience will see the power of music in persevering and providing hope.

“The way the Nazis approached music showed how afraid they were of the power of art,” Crabb said. “And the fact that this music is still around shows that they could not squelch this art.”