When French pianist Dimitri Malignan did his master's at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, he dug into the history of Dutch composers who died in the Holocaust.
He has since made recordings of their music and other artists who perished in the death camps.
And on April 8, the St. Petersburg Council on World Affairs and the Florida Holocaust Museum present Malignan and Soprano Lily Arbisser in concert.
They will perform music by composers who died in the Holocaust and others.
For Malignan, it's personal. He's not Jewish, but he has family members who are — including his grandfather, who was a Jewish composer.
"It is very important for me as a musician to acknowledge the historical context that happened and to promote the lives and memories of these composers. Of course, (they) didn't get a second chance to have their music heard because they were murdered in the Holocaust," he said.
He considers himself an ally. And he doesn't want the music of such composers to be forgotten.
"In a way, these people were murdered, so their lives ended, but I don't want their art to also end with them; art can live through ages and centuries. Of course, they were forgotten for 80 years, but it's not too late to have their music be put on the stage," he said.
Malignan said it's especially important for people of his generation to hear these stories, as eyewitnesses to the Holocaust are lost to time and younger people do not learn about it.
"I do feel a responsibility, and also in nowadays times where, because there is a big rise in antisemitism, and I feel that we have to also promote to make the younger generations remember also what happened then. And it's a very concrete way to connect, I think, with the Holocaust education in a way, than to have just, numbers and names," he said.
The Anti-Defamation League, an international anti-hate organization, reported last October that more than half of all Jewish Americans reported at least one form of antisemitism in the previous 12 months. And nearly 57% now consider antisemitism a normal Jewish experience.
Malignan said the program has some works for solo piano, but is mostly vocal and piano.
He said the texts are interesting and are usually translated and printed in the program.
"So, the audience can connect and very often with very beautiful poems which are connected sometimes, of course, to the tragic circumstances," he said.
He is performing with Soprano Lily Arbisser.
"Lily is a fantastic singer that we connected about three or four years ago, and she's based in New York, and she was also interested in music from the Holocaust. So, yeah, it's the third tour we're already doing together in the U.S," he said.
The program includes music by the German writer and poet Ilsa Weber.
"She was not really a composer. She was more of a writer and poet, and she wrote a lot of books for children, and she was deported to Theresienstadt as a Jew," he said.
"And there she wrote some novels and some poems for the children there. And she wrote a set of songs as well, very simple songs with very simple melodies with an easy accompaniment that would be done, probably with any instrument they had available there, so most probably a guitar or maybe a basic piano. And it's a very lovely set of songs. There is indeed one song which is called 'I'm wandering in Theresienstadt,' which is, of course, very moving. Sounds a little bit like a Schubert lied, in a way, and it's a very moving melody," he said.
The concert will also feature music by Dick Kattenburg, Simon Gokkes and Gideon Klein.
The concert is on April 8 at the Cathedral Church of St. Peter. It's presented by The St. Petersburg Council on World Affairs and the Florida Holocaust Museum. You can get details from their website.
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