A night for remembrance: Voices Lost

By Alexander Valdes | Published by November 25, 2019
Voices Lost, a concert in commemoration of composers that had to endure the suffering brought upon them by Nazi concentration camps in remembrance of the night of Kristallnacht (broken glass) was hosted by Adara Goldberg, Director of the Holocaust Resource Center and Sarah Coykendall, Assistant Director of the Holocaust Resource Center on Nov. 12 at Kean Hall.

Coykendall emphasized the purpose of the event was to remember the tragic events that occurred during the night of broken glass and delved a little deeper around the history of the event.

“The purpose is to honor Kristallnacht, this is the 81st anniversary of the night of broken glass, which occurred on November 9th and 10th 1938 in greater Germany. It was the pogrom and the Jews destroyed homes, synagogues, schools, businesses. They killed over 90 people and they deported approximately 25,000 people to concentration camps,” Coykendall said. “It signified when the Jews were targeted by Nazi Germany.”

Performers Dr. Carol Shansky and Dr. Amber Liao later expressed their admiration of the pieces and of the composers themselves.

“I find the backgrounds of the composers, how they were affected by the holocaust very moving, the more I play their music, the music just touches me, I think it’s beautiful music and I don’t know any of these composers,” Laio said. “But I find their music very special and I just like them and happy to play it.”

Dr. Shansky shared the same sentiments with Dr. Laio while explaining how it can be difficult as a composer to get recognition.

“The bios of the composers are very compelling, and I was talking to somebody the other day that it’s hard enough to get recognition as a composer in general especially in the 20th century, it’s very hard for modern composers to get any kind of a name,” Shansky said. “These composers are all from the Netherlands and one is from Czechoslovakia, so these are from areas we don’t hear from so much, but the music is super interesting.”

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