Re: The Muse in the Fortress

[borzykowski <borzykowski...>]

Dear Sylvie,

Have you a digest of your lecture on the web?
Michal
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Sylvie Braitman 
  To: World music from a Jewish slant 
  Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 1:11 AM
  Subject: The Muse in the Fortress


  I am presenting my lecture on the fate of music in Europe during the Third 
Reich, at Temple Israel in Alameda.
  7:15PM, refreshments then lecture until 9:15/9:30.
  suggested contribution:$5


  3183 Mecartney Road
  Alameda, California 94502
  (510) 522-9355 

  www.templeisraelalameda.org





  The Muse in the Fortress: Music during the Shoah



  What was the fate of music during the most destructive events of our era? Did 
it disappear, as did millions of people? 

  Or, like many, did it go into hiding? Did it, in the end, rise above the 
ashes?

  This lecture explores the links between the Arts and Politics during the 
domination of the Third Reich over Europe. 

  We first analyze the situation in Germany and its consequence on musicians 
and their music. We then move to the ghettos were music was a chronicle of 
daily life as well as a tool of resistance. We end the exploration with the 
very inspiring story of the ghetto of Theresienstadt were creativity was full 
blown in spite of the constant "relocations to the East", which was the name 
given to deportation to death camps.

  This is a very inspiring lecture about the strength of the human spirit. 
Musical excerpts of many unknown composers are played, thus opening doors to an 
unsuspected wealth of music creation, that would otherwise be totally fallen 
into oblivion, or worse, never discovered.

  Born in Paris from Jewish Polish parents, Sylvie Braitman has been a San 
Franciscan for 13 years. She received her music performance diploma from the 
San Francisco Conservatory of Music She is also a graduate of the prestigious 
Political Sciences Institute of Paris. She performs as a mezzo soprano with 
local opera companies and has designed various one woman shows in which she 
weaves story telling, acting and Yiddish songs

  She is well known in the Bay Area as a performer of French Cabaret and has 
recorded a second album "Les Demoiselles de Pigalle".

  Her research into the history of Music during the Third Reich has developed 
into a lecture that she has presented in the Bay Area as well as in Montreal.