The JCC Chamber Music Series will present a unique concert on June 26. The Adler Project: Two Worlds In Music combines film and storytelling with chamber music to reveal a fascinating chapter of history when Jewish musicians fled Europe to find refuge in China.
During the 1930s and 1940s, many Jewish people attempted in various ways to flee persecution and imprisonment in Europe. It’s a sad legacy of that time that many countries, including Canada, would refuse them entry.
However, during the course of the pre-war and wartime period, about 20,000 Jewish refugees did find a second home in China.
Among them were a group of orchestral musicians, including Viennese violinist Ferdinand Adler.
It’s his story that essentially shapes the narrative for the event.
Ferdinand Adler in China
Many Chinese children had been left orphans after the Sino-Japanese war, which resulted in Japan’s takeover of portions of the country. After arriving in Shanghai, Adler and his fellow Jewish musicians began to teach the orphans how to play violin, cello, and other instruments.
Adler also continued to perform, and became concertmaster for the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra.
When the Sino-Japanese war ended in 1945, civil war erupted across China. Since WWII had also ended, the Adler family decided to move back to Austria.
But, the eight years or so that Adler and his colleagues spent in China left a permanent mark. The orphans they taught would become the core group who helped to establish Western classical music’s strong influence in China today.
The Adler Project
“I always knew that there was an exodus of Jews that fled to Shanghai,” says violinist and JCC Chamber Music Series Artistic Director Daniel Temnik. “A lot of countries closed their borders.”
Passages to China, however, remained open, and he estimates that between 1930 and 1941, about 18,000 refugees fled to Shanghai. “They’d usually travel through Italy.” He recalls travelling to Genoa several years ago to find plaques and memorials to the Jews who’d made their way through the region.
“That kind of got me going,” he says. “I started doing a little bit of research into it.”
A business associate was able to point him in the right direction.
“She brought up a name who was affiliated with them.” Fang Sheng was the son of one of Adler’s original students, Ming Liang Sheng, and Temnik’s contact was able to reach out to him. “He’s actually the son of a musician who was taught by Fernand Adler.”
Ming Liang Sheng’s story is in many ways just as dramatic as Adler’s. After his parents were killed in what is now known as the Rape of Nanjing, he escaped the Japanese forces, and made his way to Shanghai. He was one of the orphans Adler connected with.
Fang, his son, made his way to Canada eventually, and began searching for information about Adler based on what little he could remember from his own childhood. His search, and the connections he made, became the subject of a documentary film directed by Paul Rosdy titled Visit from China — an official selection of the 2024 Shanghai International Film Festival. The film follows Fang as he meets Christina, Adler’s daughter, in Austria where Christina lives.
The event will present the Canadian premiere of the film.
Adler’s Legacy
“Adler was a pivotal player,” Temnik says of his influence in China.
The music on the program will include key pieces that Adler performed both with his young students and with his professional colleagues. That includes:
- Antonín Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96 (B. 179), aka the American Quartet, third movement;
- Felix Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 12, first movement
- La Folia (Vivaldi): arranged by the Bålder Quartet
- Handel: Passacaglia, arranged for string quartet
Storytelling weaves the music and film together. Music will be performed by the Shalom-Mei Ensemble, led by Daniel, with Samuel Choi (Viola), Austin Chao (Cello), and Jiaqi Zou (Violin II). For the first half, Fong’s stories will segue in and out of the music. The film will screen during the second half of the event.
Putting the Pieces Together
Daniel began putting the project together a few years ago, during the COVID pandemic.
“Everything was paused in my life,” says Temnik of his performing career. “I pivoted towards education.”
He found many students, and a receptive environment, in Toronto’s Chinese community. Today, there are students who travel from China to study with him each summer. It led him to dig into the connections between their cultures.
“I wanted to bring something in from my own history,” he says, “I also wanted cross cultural,” he adds.
“That heritage sharing is the most important thing. I’m very big on that.”
The JCC Chamber Music Series
This is the inaugural season for the JCC Chamber Music Series. Concerts earlier this year have featured klezmer ensemble Schmaltz & Pepper, and Barry Shiffman with musicians from the Royal Conservatory of Music.
Concerts take place at the Leah Posluns Theatre, located at the Prosserman JCC. Future events include:
- Pianist Roman Rabinovich (September 18)
- Likht Ensemble with soprano Jaclyn Grossman (November 6)
Find more information and tickets for The Adler Project [HERE].
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