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TO RECOGNIZE THE WEEK OF APRIL 15-21, 2012, AS "A WEEK OF REMEMBRANCE...A CELEBRATION OF JEWISH CULTURE," AND TO COMMEND OPERA-TUNITY FOUNDATION AND THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOOL OF MUSIC FOR ORGANIZING THE FIRST JOINT COLLABORATION TO COMMEMORATE AND HONOR JEWISH CULTURE IN THE MIDLANDS.
Whereas, the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives are pleased to learn that Opera-tunity Foundation and the University of South Carolina School of Music will commemorate the lives lost during the World War II Holocaust in a week-long project of educational and art events; and
Whereas, beginning on Sunday, April 15, 2012, the Opera-tunity Foundation will provide a week of events that will honor the acts of bravery of Jews who suffered and lost their lives in The Holocaust and at the same time will promote an appreciation of and education in the arts in South Carolina; and
Whereas, the opening musical program, presented in collaboration with the University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra and Choirs under the direction of Donald Portnoy and Larry Wyatt, will offer the South Carolina premiere of Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin and will include a preconcert lecture from guests such as Edgar Krasa, a Terezin survivor; and
Whereas, the Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin, a powerful multimedia presentation, tells the story of courageous Jewish prisoners who performed Verdi's Requiem Mass to show their defiance of their captors while in the ghetto known as the Theresienstadt concentration camp during World War II; and
Whereas, located in Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic, Terezin concentration camp imprisoned many intellectuals, artists, and musicians, and among them Raphael Schächter, a talented Jewish conductor, organized singers and musicians to produce operas and other musical productions; and
Whereas, with a make-shift piano and a single, worn copy of the score for Verdi's Requiem Mass which he smuggled into the camp, Raphael Schächter directed as many as one hundred fifty singers sixteen times in the performance, but singers constantly had to be replenished as members were frequently shipped to Auschwitz to die or died in Terezin from the stark condition there; and
Whereas, guest conductor Murry Sidlin, the creative motivation behind the retelling of the World War II story which became the Defiant Requiem, and Janet Hopkins, New York Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano star and founder of Opera-tunity Foundation, will perform the requiem with soprano Tina Stallard, tenor Walter Cuttino, and baritone Jacob Will at the Koger Center for the Arts in Columbia; and
Whereas, the week of remembrance will also include a performance by the University of South Carolina Wind Ensemble of Degenerates: Composers Banned by Hitler; Holocaust Cantata by Donald McCullogh at Greene Street United Methodist Church; a Yom HaShoah-Holocaust Remembrance Day at Beth Shalom Synagogue; a display of original artwork by Ela Weissberger, a child survivor of Terezin; and a week-long tribute on display at the Richland County Public Library. Now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives:
That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, recognize the week of April 15-21, 2012, as "A Week of Remembrance...a Celebration of Jewish Culture," and commend Opera-tunity Foundation and the University of South Carolina School of Music for organizing the first joint collaboration to commemorate and honor Jewish culture in the Midlands.
Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be presented to a representative from Opera-tunity Foundation and the University of South Carolina School of Music.
This web page was last updated on April 17, 2012 at 12:29 PM