Sunday, April 12 –
This concert-drama celebrates the courageous Jewish prisoners who performed a smuggled version of the famous oratorio, Verdi Requiem, 16 times while being held at the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp during World War II. The Defiant Requiem Foundation president, Maestro Murry Sidlin, created this magnificent concert by combining music of the Verdi score with testimony from survivors of the original chorus and clips from a Nazi propaganda film on Theresienstadt. Not only a great performance of the Verdi Requiem, this concert tells the story of the chorus and pays tribute to Conductor Rafael Schachter, who led them. Such a brave leader during incredibly trying and tragic times, Schachter told the chorus, “We will sing to the Nazis what we cannot say to them.” And while some members of the chorus were sent to Auschwitz, Schachter didn’t stop conducting and prisoners continued to sing. On Sunday, April 12, at 3 p.m., see this inspiring, hopeful performance, presented by Canterbury Choral Society, at the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall. For more information, visit www.okcciviccenter.com.
