Music from the Abyss

Welcome remarks: Arnošt Kareš, Consul General of the Czech Republic in New York

Concept and Introduction: Michael Lahr von Leïtis, Artistic Director of Elysium between two continets

Despite degrading living conditions, despite hunger and pain, despite fear in the face of terror and death, many artists were able to be creative even in the concentration camps. Their art helped them to endure the daily suffering, their music offered hope and consolation to their fellow inmates. In an essay he wrote in Theresienstadt in 1943, composer Viktor Ullmann said: “We did not sit moaning at the Rivers of Babylon and our will to be creative was as strong as our will to live.”

Theresienstadt /Terezin served a dual purpose: It was a ghetto and transit point to the extermination camps in the East, and at the same time was used by the Nazi regime as a propaganda tool to disguise the final solution and the killing of millions of Jews. Many highly decorated war veterans and prominent Jews were brought to Terezin, including numerous artists.

Among the composers deported to Terezin were Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, Zigmund Schul, James Simon, and Viktor Ullmann. They continued writing music for the instruments they had managed to bring with them or found in the ghetto which had been a garrison town before being emptied and converted to a camp in November of 1941. Erwin Schulhoff, a radically experimental composer from Prague, was deported to the internment camp Wülzburg in 1941 and died there of tuberculosis in 1942. Haas, Simon, and Ullmann were deported to Auschwitz in October of 1944 and upon arrival killed in the gas chambers. Schul had died in Terezin in 1944, Klein died in 1945 in the concentration camp Fürstengrube. However, many of their works written in the camps were saved.

The event is organised by , and .

Program:

Gabriel Cassagnes (piano), Jeannie Im (soprano), Adam Leites (oboe), Michael Protacio (tenor), Tamar Sagiv (cello), and Dan Franklin Smith (piano) will present songs and chamber music works by Haas, Klein, Schul, Schulhoff, Simon and Ullmann.

Pavel Haas (1899 – 1944) - Suite for Oboe and Piano, Op. 17

Gideon Klein (1919 – 1945) - Melodrama “Krajina” for piano and Narrator

Zigmund Schul (1916 – 1944) - Two Chassidic Dances

Erwin Schulhoff (1894 – 1942) - Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 17

James Simon (1880 – 1944) - Arioso for Cello solo

Viktor Ullmann (1898 – 1944) - Three Hölderlin Songs

Two Chinese Songs - Excerpts from the opera “The Emperor of Atlantis”

Ilse Weber (1903 – 1944) - Songs from Terezin

Info: Gabriel Cassagnes is a young French pianist admitted in 2020 to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris in Denis Pascal's class. He was also admitted in 2024 to study composition with Yves Henry. He is currently pursuing his second-year Master's degree. Born in 2001 in Arizona, USA, he began taking private piano lessons at the age of six in France. At the age of sixteen he affirmed his desire to pursue the piano professionally. A regular participant in piano competitions, he won first prize in 2017 at the Clés d'Or competition in the “Superior” category, and in 2018 at the Steinway Prodige Art competition in the “Excellence” category, as well as at the Flame Competition in Paris. He is regularly invited to play at various concerts and festivals, such as Les Théophanies in Rieux-Minervois, the Festival de La Forge in Honfleur; the Musée Guimet in Paris for the “Les pianissimes” festival; the Eglise Saint-Ephrem and the Eglise Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre.

Info: Jeannie Im, soprano, has been with Elysium since 2000. She starred in the Italian premiere of Ernst Krenek’s What Price Confidence and the world premiere of Egon Lustgarten’s Dante in Exile. She has performed music by exiled composers and directed several programs, including Mein Liebeslied muss ein Walzer sein (2014) and Ich wandle unter Blumen (2015). In 2022, she directed Campaigning for Women’s Rights – Fighting against Fascism and the Innovators in Exile kick-off concert. Since 2016, Jeannie has been a guest artist with the Caroga Arts Collective in New York. She has performed across Europe and the U.S., including at Carnegie Hall and Caramoor Music Festival. A Cum Laude graduate of U.C. Berkeley, she earned an M.A. in Musicology and a Certificate in Early Music Performance from NYU.

Info: Michael Lahr von Leitis, Concept & Introduction, is author and editor of the books The Erwin Piscator Award, and Erwin Piscator’s Legacy Lives On: Conversations about Theater, Music and Politics, and a co-author of the volume of essays Bilder des Menschen (Images of Man). As a specialist in Erwin Piscator, the founder of the political and epic theater, he curated the exhibit Erwin Piscator: Political Theater in Exile, which so far has been seen in Bernried, New York, Catania, Salzburg, Munich, Vienna, and Berlin. He has unearthed numerous works by artists who were persecuted by the Nazis. He lectures on social and political issues and has directed Elysium productions like Remember – For the Future. He conceived programs such as Defending Democracy and serves as Artistic Director of Elysium, Executive Director of The Lahr von Leïtis Academy & Archive, Chairman of the Erwin Piscator Award, advisor to the Nietzsche Forum Munich, and Fellow Researcher at the Exilarte Center in Vienna.

Info: Adam Leites, oboe, graduated from the Mozarteum University of Salzburg in 2022. During his studies, he played as principal oboe under Maxim Vengerov and performed chamber music with Veronika Hagen and Cordelia Höfer. He was a finalist for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Academy and later performed with the RCO under Klaus Mäkelä and Riccardo Chailly. He has also played with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. In New York, he performed at the French Consulate, Symphony Space, and Central Park Summerstage. Adam teaches at the Conservatoires de Niort and Fontenay and gives private concerts in France and New York.

Info: Michael Protacio, tenor, is a versatile singer and actor praised as a “sweet-voiced” tenor by The New York Times. He has performed across the U.S. and in 37 countries, recorded for film and TV, and frequently appears in operatic, concert, and sacred music performances in NYC. In 2023, he participated in Elysium’s Innovators in Exile, showcasing music by Austrian-Jewish exiled composers. Beyond classical music, he performs in musical theater, pop, and jazz, premiering new works and singing with Ghostlight Chorus and Brooklyn Harmonics. Notable credits include Out of the Eclipse and On This Side of the World, with film/TV appearances in How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Glee. He holds degrees from Yale and Carnegie Mellon.

Info: Tamar Sagiv, award-winning cellist and composer, made her Carnegie Hall solo debut in 2023 with her piece Roots. She has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, Sony Hall, and the NYPL, with features on WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase and the Cello Biennale Festival in Amsterdam. She received the Certificate of Honor from Zubin Mehta and the Israeli Philharmonic for excellence in orchestra training at the Buchmann Mehta School of Music. Her performances have been broadcast on Israeli National Radio. Tamar holds degrees from Buchmann Mehta and Mannes School of Music, where she studied under Matt Haimovitz. Her debut album, Shades of Mourning, created with Palestinian activist Haya Haddad, will be released by SonoLuminus in August 2025.

Info: Dan Franklin Smith, piano, has worked with Elysium since 1996, leading the world premiere of Egon Lustgarten’s Dante in Exile at the Elysium Festival Bernried. He has conceived musical-literary collages and regularly performed solo recitals at the festival. He made his European recital debut in Sweden (1997) and his orchestral debut in Stockholm (1998), later recording with the Gäyle Symfoniorkester. In 2004, he recorded Hans Huber’s piano concerti with the Stuttgart Philharmonic. He has performed at the National Gallery, Alice Tully Hall, and the Savannah Music Festival and toured Bermuda, Taiwan, and Puerto Rico. A recipient of a Performing Artist Grant from the American Scandinavian Foundation, he is a member of the Recording Society and the American Matthay Association.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Bohemian National Hall, 321 East 73rd Street, New York, United States