May 18, 2023/ 8:00 PM

UCLA Royce Hall

A co-presentation of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience and the American Friends of Yad Vashem, "Righteousness and Bravery: A Concert for Sugihara" features the West Coast premiere of Symphony No. 6 (“Vessels of Light”), a 40’ work for cello, chorus and orchestra by acclaimed Soviet-born Jewish Austrian-American composer Lera Auerbach (b. 1973). Commissioned by Yad Vashem/The World Holocaust Remembrance Center and The American Society for Yad Vashem, the symphony commemorates the heroism of Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat who clandestinely saved thousands of Jews during World War II from his post in Kaunas, Lithuania, and is dedicated to Sugihara “and all those who risk everything to save others.” This searingly expressive work features Yiddish texts adapted from poetry by Yisroel Emyot, Dovid Hofshteyn, Peretz Markish, Itzik Manger, Simkha Shayevitch, Avrom Sutzkever, Moyshe Teyf and Rajzel Zychlinski. “Vessels of Light" has recently received European premiere performances in Kaunas and Prague, and will receive its U.S. premiere at Carnegie Hall on April 19. The cello soloist will be Kristina Reiko Cooper, who initiated the project and whose husband’s family was among those saved by Sugihara.

Schubert Symphony No. 8 in B minor (“Unfinished”)
Lera Auerbach Symphony No. 6 (“Vessels of Light”) (2022)

Kristina Reiko Cooper, cello
UCLA Chamber Singers
UCLA Philharmonia
Neal Stulberg, conductor

UCLA Royce Hall
Free admission

https://schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/event/music-and-justice-part-two-righteousness-and-bravery/

https://schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/concert-at-ucla-honors-one-mans-acts-of-righteousness-and-bravery-during-the-holocaust/?mc_cid=077a23cb7a&mc_eid=565a36d127

Sponsor(s): The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience; American Friends of Yad Vashem