We’re excited to welcome back Jeanne Golan to DOROT, this time as Artist/Scholar in Residence for four concerts over the next year.
In addition to being a decorated pianist whose playing has been described by the New York Times as, “technically polished and superbly expressive,” Golan is a Professor of Music at SUNY/Nassau. Golan, who previously shared her talents with us for Holocaust Remembrance Day, has a passion for highlighting “recovered voices”—or composers who were persecuted, often murdered, by the Nazi regime—in a “concert with conversation” format.
Two of Golan’s upcoming concerts will specifically focus on “recovered voices.” She describes sharing the works of these composers as “incredibly rewarding” and “a true mitzvah” that she finds particularly pertinent to the DOROT community—a community that feels very much like family to her.
Golan’s next performance, Survivors for Survivors, is on September 24, 2024 at 12:30 PM, with both in-person and virtual attendance options. This will be an especially poignant occasion, as the audience will be comprised of many children of Holocaust survivors, or 2Gs. The pieces Golan will play all reflect some aspect of home-life as each composer experienced it: Wanda Landowska’s Reverie of Autumn is an homage to her native Warsaw. Max Eisikovits’s set of rhapsodic cello and piano pieces uses melodies he collected from a small Hasidic community in Transylvania in 1938-9, fearing that the town, and its music, would be destroyed.” This performance will feature cellist Daniel Miller. The Household Muse, by Darius Milhaud, will include projections of drawings by Golan’s late friend and artist, Matt Freedman, drawn especially for this music.
In addition to championing “recovered voices," Golan also stands out for her “concert with conversation” format of sharing music with audiences, which fits well with DOROT’s mission of fostering social connection. To Golan, “music is communication,” and she believes that talking with those listening about the circumstances around and intentions of the music they are about to hear will enrich the musical experience for all involved—especially with her tendency to perform previously unknown works.
“Too often, music is thought of as something that appears out of nowhere. That what we listen to is written by another human being somehow gets lost,” Golan explains. She hopes her audience finds a sense of community through the collective experience of attending her performances. In addition to her upcoming concert for 2Gs—one of many programs in DOROT’s new 2G program series—Golan will be performing three additional concerts in the upcoming year for the DOROT community—including chamber music by Beethoven for his birthday and a Yom HaShoah recovered voices concert.
Sign up for Jeanne Golan’s “Survivors for Survivors” concert on 9/24 >>
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