BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Concert Choir, directed by Susan Dedell, is beginning work on Larry Siegel's landmark composition, Kaddish, with rehearsals beginning in February in preparation for concerts to be presented at the Latchis Theatre on May 19 and 20.
Kaddish is a powerful work for chorus, soloists, and chamber orchestra, a collection of 15 original songs fashioned largely from testimonies of Holocaust survivors. They are the result of first-hand interviews that composer Siegel conducted over several years.
In his words, “the intention of Kaddish is to make common cause with those who survived the Holocaust, by giving its audience, through the power of song, the empathic capacity to feel some shadow of what the survivors felt and feel, and to carry in our hearts [...] those who perished.”
Kaddish, commissioned by the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies at Keene State College, made its debut at the Redfern Arts Center in Keene in May 2008.
Successive performances have been critically acclaimed: Kaddish has been performed in Minneapolis by Vocal Essence, under Philip Brunelle, in Houston by the Houston Symphony, Hans Graf, conductor, and just last fall was performed by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Gil Shohat, conductor.
To learn how to participate, contact Dedell at the Brattleboro Music Center at 802-257-4523. To learn more about the Brattleboro Concert Choir, visit www.bmcvt.org. To learn more about Kaddish, visit www.kaddishproject.org.