Remembrance Day - Reading and Music

(January 26, 2012)

New York City. On January 27, Giornata della memoria, we gathered outside the Consulate General of Italy on Park Avenue to read the names of the thousands of Italian Jewish victims of the Holocaust. This year the traditional ceremony is enrich with a new feature: the invitation to the public is not just the one to read, but to play music as a counterpoint to the ongoing reading. Among the performing artists, guitarist and arranger Brandon Ross, composer and conductor Lawrence "Butch" Morris, multi-instrumentalist Avram Fefer, guitarist Marco Cappelli, bass player Bernd Klug, and musician Mauro Pagani who will play the violin.

In the year 2000 the European Union adopted January 27 (the day on which in 1945 the Soviet Army liberated Auschwitz) as a Day of Remembrance, to commemorate the victims of the Shoah and to promote the fight against racism and discrimination. The United Nations ratified the anniversary with a resolution in November 2005.

Each year the main Italian cultural and academic institutions in New York commemorate the Day of Remembrance with a weeklong series of cultural events. The centerpiece of the commemoration is a public reading of the names of the men, women and children deported from Italy and the Italian territories.

The reading will take place in front of the Italian Consulate on Park Avenue and 69th street.

This is a somber ceremony, in which the names of the victims resound in the open space with great emotional impact for the readers and passersby alike. It is an opportunity to meditate and an attempt to give back individuality and dignity to the thousands who disappeared into the void.

The reading of approximately 8900 deportees names will start at 9:00 am and last roughly until 3:00 pm.

This year, for the first time, the ceremony will also feature live and recorded music.

Renowned instrumentalists from the classical, jazz and new music communities will take turns, solo or in small ensembles, creating soundscapes to accompany the reading, keeping with the tone and solemnity of the event.

Among the performing artists, guitarist and arranger Brandon Ross, composer and conductor Lawrence "Butch" Morris, multi-instrumentalist Avram Fefer, guitarist Marco Cappelli, bass player Bernd Klug, and musician Mauro Pagani who will play the violin.

The recorded music selected for the occasion is "Enciclopedia Discografica KZ Musik," the newly released audio-anthology curated by Francesco Lotoro, featuring the most comprehensive collection of music composed in the concentration camps.

The reading is open to the public.

Giorno della Memoria is held under the auspices of the Consulate General of Italy in collaboration with Centro Primo Levi, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimo' at NYU, John D. Calandra Institute at CUNY, Italian Academy at Columbia University, Scuola d'Italia "G. Marconi", i-Italy.org and RAI Corporation.

Centro Primo Levi, Inc. | 15 West 16th Street | New York, NY 10011 | 917-606-8202

[email protected] |www.primolevicenter.org [2] | www.j-italy.org [2]