The William Breman Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum is introducing a concert series this fall to celebrate the role Jews have played in music. In this, its inaugural year, the museum is partnering with the Atlanta Opera.
The three-concert event, named the Molly Blank Jewish Concert Series, was made possible by a grant from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. It’s named for Blank’s mother, an opera lover. The concerts will take place in the Breman Museum’s 330-seat auditorium in Midtown’s Selig Center, a Spring Street space it shares with the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta.
The lineup:
8 p.m. Nov. 9: “Music of the Holocaust: Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht.” Featuring Atlanta Opera chamber musicians, led by Atlanta Opera music director Arthur Fagen, whose parents were saved by Oskar Schindler. Selections include Gideon Klein’s String Trio (1944) and Hans Krása’s Passacaglia and Fugue for string trio (1944) plus songs by Isle Weber, Adolf Strauss and Martin Roman. This concert honors those who died during the “Night of Broken Glass,” a systematic attack on Jews in Germany and Austria on Nov. 9-10, 1938.
3 p.m. Jan. 19, 2014: “Jewish Composers of the 19th and 20th Centuries.” This Fagen-led program features a singer, pianist and string quartet and includes works by Mendelssohn, Mahler and Leonard Bernstein.
3 p.m. March 9, 2014: “The Best of Broadway,” featuring music by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin and Steven Sondheim. Fagen again conducts.
A reception with the performers follows each concert. Tickets are $55 for members, $65 for non-members and available HERE or at 678.222.3700.
The Breman opened in 1996, the eventual result of a 1983 exhibition on Jews in Georgia that suggested the need for an institution to interpret the Jewish experience here. Until now, it has largely focused on history and culture exhibits.
