The Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra has commissioned composer Michael Schachter to create a choral work to commemorate the organization’s 60th anniversary and to honor the memory of the prisoners in the Terezin concentration camp. The genesis of the piece is the fact that something extraordinary happened within the walls of the concentration camp during World War II. Despite facing starvation, disease and the constant threat of deportation to Auschwitz, the Jewish prisoners mounted operas, formed choirs, composed new works, and performed masterpieces—most famously, the Verdi Requiem.
The new work, the “Terezín Requiem” for chorus and orchestra, emerges directly from this history. Composer Michael Schachter brings both artistic mastery and a deeply personal connection to this project. His wife's great-grandfather disappeared during the Holocaust and was only recently traced to Terezín, where he sang in the camp's choirs. Haydn's luminous Theresienmesse rounds out the FREE performance. Reservations at BCCO.org