Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín
20th anniversary performance
April 20 at The Music Center at Strathmore
North Bethesda, MD

Complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem, interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration tells the moving story of courageous performances by prisoners in a WWII concentration camp

Read about Defiant Requiem in The New York Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune and more

Praised by The New York Times as "Poignant...a monument to the courage of one man to foster hope among prisoners with little other solace," Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín celebrates its 20th anniversary with a performance at Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD on Wednesday, April 20, 2022 at 7:30 pm. Complete details below.

The "extraordinarily beautiful and moving" concert/drama commemorates the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during World War II who performed Verdi's Requiem 16 times, as an act of defiance and resistance to their Nazi captors. Defiant Requiem is a complete live performance of Verdi's Requiem interspersed with historic film, testimony from survivors and narration that tells this tale of audacious bravery.

"When the conductor Rafael Schächter, imprisoned at the Terezín concentration camp, considered rallying his fellow inmates to perform the Requiem by Guiseppe Verdi, I believe he recalled the lines in the Dies Irae section of the work, "Whatever is hidden shall become evident and nothing shall remain unavenged." That is God talking to the individual Catholic. But from the point of view of a prisoner in a concentration camp, this is you telling the Nazis that God is watching them and they will pay for it.   "With only a single copy of the score, Schächter thought, "I'll round up people and I'll train them and teach them how to sing the Verdi Requiem." Almost every night, they would go into this dark, dank, bleak basement to rehearse. The men would go down one night, and Schächter would plunk out the melodies on a creaky portative organ. And then the next night he'd bring the women down, and they would learn the same 12 or 16 bars.   "Slowly but surely worked it out. Ultimately, they gave sixteen performances of the Verdi Requiem at Terezín."   - Murry Sidlin, Defiant Requiem creator and conductor

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín was created by Murry Sidlin, who will conduct the performance. It features soprano Jennifer Check, mezzo-soprano Ann McMahon Quintero, tenor Cooper Nolan, bass-baritone Nathan Stark, and the Orchestra of Terezín Remembrance. A chorus of regional ensembles includes the American University Chamber Singers, The Catholic University of America Verdi Choir, Longwood University Camerata & Chamber Singers, University of Virginia Chamber Singers, Virginia Commonwealth University Commonwealth Singers, and the Virginia State University Concert Choir. 

Since the world premiere performance twenty years ago, Defiant Requiem has had a profound and lasting impact on the communities and audiences who have experienced this powerful story live. The April 20, 2022 performance at Strathmore commemorates this twenty year milestone. The concert benefits the Foundation’s continuing efforts to honor the brave Jewish prisoners in Theresienstadt, educate future generations about why the Holocaust must never be forgotten, and foster conversations about contemporary issues including rising Holocaust ignorance and denial, antisemitism, and racism.

Ticketing information and more for Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín is available in the calendar listing below.

The Defiant Requiem Foundation also produced an Emmy-nominated documentary film narrated by Bebe Neuwirth that has been praised as a "gripping documentary" (Examiner.com), with "a very powerful message" (CNN). More information is at DefiantRequiem.org

CALENDAR LISTING

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín

Wednesday, April 20 at 7:30 pm

The Music Center at Strathmore
5301 Tuckerman Lane
North Bethesda, MD 20852

 Tickets at strathmore.org