January 13, 2013 - free general admission

SYMPOSIUM - 2:00pm   More about the speakers  More about Dan Asia
Symposium program & schedule
Location: Music Building - Room 146
Suggested parking: Park Ave. Garage
For more information on the Symposia, call The School of Music at 621-2998

CONCERT - 7:00 pm   More about the musicians
Concert Program
Location: Music Building - Holsclaw Hall
Suggested parking: Park Ave. Garage
 
The Symposium will explore the influence of Jewish liturgical and folk music in the works of Dmitri Shostakovich and Daniel Asia.

The concert will include the Symphony #13  “Babi Yar” by Dmitri Shostakovich which was created in 1962. We are  commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first performance of this important work in the former Soviet Union. This is the first time the "Babi Yar" symphony has ever been performed in Tucson.  The concert will also include Shostakovich's "Piano Trio No. 2" and "Amichai Songs" from Dan Asia's Symphony No. 5, “Of Songs and Psalms" and his Piano Trio.

The “Babi Yar” symphony is based on poems of Russian poet Evgeny Yevtushenko that reflect on the tragic events of 1942 in Babi Yar (ravine) in Kiev, where over 90,000 people, mostly Jews, were massacred. Yevtushenko’s poems question the Soviet stance towards Jews and the phenomena of anti-Semitism in Russia. This work was for Shostakovich a personal and public statement that resonated throughout the Soviet Union and beyond.

"Babi Yar" Symphony #13 by Shostakovich which was created in 1962. This is an important piece of music and I think that it has never been performed in Tucson at all. So it is the first Tucson performance I believe.

Daniel Asia, renowned composer in the School of Music, has always maintained an interest in Jewish history, music, philosophy, and liturgy. Amichai Songs reflect on life, love, and death, and nature, the “Situation” (between Arabs and Jews) This work was written in honor of Israel’s 60th birthday, this version of the Amichai Songs is in honor of the 65th.