Remembering the Holocaust
Juno winners and guest speakers will gather for ‘Sounds of Hope’
Bravo Niagara will mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust with a virtual program of events.
As part of its Voices of Freedom Festival, which began with a musical short film earlier this year, the series will gather Juno winners and guest speakers for “Sounds of Hope.”
The program started Tuesday with “Holocaust Families: What We learned from Elie Wiesel,” which featured speakers Robert Krell, a Holocaust survivor, Emmy-winning journalist Howard Reich and moderator Marilyn Sinclair.
The program continues Sunday with pianist Robi Botos and his trio performing “Romani Experience” at 2 p.m. The show follows Botos’ journey from his Budapest roots to his move to Canada, where he directed his efforts to bringing the history of the Roma genocide during the Holocaust to light.
The show features selections from his score for “A People Uncounted,” and will include the world premiere of a new piece commissioned by Bravo Niagara.
The series concludes Dec. 6 at 2p.m. with Canadian composer Christos Hatzis’ world premiere of “Menorah,” performed by Montreal-based violinist Marc Djokic and pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico.
Hatzis describes the show as a “demanding composition for violin and piano,” depicting the “opposite psychic patterns” that manifest during crisis.
“Not being a Jew myself, it is this larger canvas that has allowed me to enter the subject of the Holocaust and document my own psychic reactions to it,” he said, “particularly at a time in our collective existence when dark clouds are again assembling in the horizon and, if we do not study and learn from history, we may be condemned to repeat it.”
Bravo Niagara executive director Alexis Spieldenner said the series “will honour the past and bring new visions of hope” for future generations.
“We feel these projects will be important legacy projects with a long-lasting impact.”
To view the series, visit bravoniagara.org.