“Il ballo di Irène”, credit Giovanni Bindellini
January 27 is the date when the Russian army entered and liberated the Auschwitz camp in 1945. This date was chosen for the Day of Memory.
During the Nazi dictatorship, music was choked and exploited for political propaganda. Composers who did not accept intimidation and dictates were persecuted; Jewish musicians have been forced to play to accompany to deaths their fellows in the extermination camps, as the few survivors of the lagers have always told.
For many years, these survivors, overwhelmed by the horror of memories, have been silent, fearful of being denied. The leader of those who had the courage to retrace their way into the abyss was Primo Levi; Nedo Fiano and later Liliana Segre, Goti Bauer and others began to tell, so that we all know from their voice that all this really existed.
Celebrating Holocaust Remembrance Day with music therefore acquires a special meaning: music is a language that everyone understands, music becomes a testimony, finds its universal values and resumes its artistic dignity. For this reason, music is now the strongest witness to help everyone, but especially young people, to keep awake consciousness.
Since 2003 Lydia Cevidalli has organized the following events for the Holocaust Remembrance Day:
- January 27, evening concert at Sala Verdi of the Conservatorio of Milan, opened to all citizenship
Various testimonies; musical performances by the students of the Conservatorio.
In collaboration with: Son of Shoah Association, Jewish Community of Milan, CDEC Foundation, Shoah Memorial Foundation.
In 2011 Radio3 chose the Conservatory of Milan as the home of the live broadcasting for the Holocaust Remembrance Day celebration
- Events reserved for the schools at Sala Verdi of the Conservatorio of Milan (booking is requested)
Various testimonies and musical performances by the students of the Conservatorio.
In collaboration with: Son of Shoah Association
Furthermore:
Klezmer Music Seminars with teachers Gabriele Coen and Lee Colbert and final performance at the Sala Puccini of the Conservatorio of Milan.
Coordination of the musical part of the show “The Places of Memory“, in collaboration with the Piccolo Teatro of Milano, at the Shoah Memorial
Presentation of all event with live broadcasting at Piazzaverdi program of the National Radio3 channel and Radio Classica
Info: Conservatorio G.Verdi, via Conservatorio 12 – tel. +39 02.762110214, from 9am to 3pm
- Conservatorio of Milan: The Conservatorio is on of the largest musical education institute in Italy; it was inaugurated in 1808
www.consmilano.it - Son of Shoah Association: Established in 1998, the Son of Shoah Association is formed by deported survivors, relatives and sympathizers who undertake not to forget the horror of the Shoah and the extermination of the six million human beings.
www.figlidellashoah.org - The Shoah Memorial Foundation: The Memorial is located under the Central Station, where the Jews started their terrible travel to the extermination camps, during the Nazi occupation. The Memorial is not intended to be a museum, but it is a laboratory of the present and is intended to be a place of the whole civil community, building collective memory and individual awareness.
www.memorialeshoah.it - CDEC Foundation: The CDEC Foundation is today the leading Italian institute of history and documentation of contemporary Jewry in Italy
www.cdec.it - Jewish Community of Milan: The Jewish Community is the official and representative institution of the Jews in Milan.
www.mosaico-cem.it