Intonations: Songs from the Violins of Hope
February 21, 2020
7:30 pm
Grace Cathedral hosts the San Francisco premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s Intonations: Songs from the Violins of Hope with mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz, violinist Rebecca Jackson and a string quartet from the San Francisco Opera Orchestra playing instruments from the Violins of Hope collection (Kay Stern and Dawn Harms, violins; Liz Prior, viola; Emil Miland, cello). The program also includes Schubert’s String Quartet No. 12 in C minor, D. 703 Quartettsatz and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80.
To commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and with the support of a prestigious Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Music at Kohl Mansion commissioned internationally-renowned American composer and Guggenheim Fellow Jake Heggie and his frequent collaborator, celebrated librettist Gene Scheer, to write a major new chamber work for the Violins of Hope.
The Violins of Hope are a collection of 70+ string instruments originally owned and played by European Jews in ghettos and Nazi death camps during WWII, which have been lovingly restored over the past two decades by renowned Israeli violin-makers Amnon and Avshalom Weinstein.
Intonations: Songs from the Violins of Hope is based on the powerful stories told by musicologist and author James A. Grymes in his book Violins of Hope: Violins of the Holocaust— Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hour. The work will receive its world premiere on the Kohl Mansion stage on January 18 and 19, 2020. The Violins of Hope make their West Coast debut in an eight-week series of events presented by Music at Kohl Mansion in collaboration with more than 40 partnering organizations. More about Violins of Hope – San Francisco Bay Area.
This project aims to unite and engage a broad group of communities in a variety of programs that will address the root causes of hate, bigotry and marginalization, and promote healing and bridge-building in response to contemporary concerns.