On 18 April 2019, on the eve of the 76th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra under the baton of Gabriel Chmura will perform a sold out concert in the auditorium of the the POLIN Museum in Warsaw. They will pay tribute to the musicians of the Warsaw ghetto.

Lauren Zhang, a 16-year old laureate of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, will be the evening’s piano soloist. The concert featuring pieces by Mozart, Schubert and Wajnberg commemorates the Jewish Symphony Orchestra and its exceptional soloist, Josima Feldschuh.

The Jewish Symphony Orchestra performed in the ghetto in the years 1941-1942. It consisted of Jewish musicians who before the war had been employed by the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Warsaw Opera or the Polish Radio Orchestra. At its peak, the Jewish Orchestra boasted at least eighty musicians. Among the conductors of symphony concerts were: Adam Furmański, Marian Neuteich, Szymon Pullman and Izrael Hammerman. On 15 March 1941, the Jewish Orchestra gave a concert featuring pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schubert. 11-year old pianist Josima Feldschuh was the soloist. Alas, despite the successful action of leading her out of the ghetto in 1943, she soon died of tuberculosis. Her notebook where she had used to jot down her compositions survived the war and today is part of the Yad Vashem Institute collection

In the second half of the concert, the audience will hear Chamber Symphony No. 4 by Mieczysław Wajnberg – the last piece he managed to complete before his passing in 1994. The symphony is a unique testament in which one can hear the echoes of Jewish music, the atrocities of war, life in Stalinist Russia, and hope for the future.

Event details

Thursday, 18 April 2019 |  7:00 pm
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Commemoration Concert
POLIN Museum
6 Mordechaja Anielewicza St.
00-157 Warsaw, Poland
Tickets & Info: polin.pl [SOLD OUT]

[Sources: polmic.plpolin.pl]