Singing Through the Darkness brings an ensemble of Toronto artists together to celebrate the enduring nature of Jewish music that survived the Holocaust. The concert takes place on January 14.
The performers include Aviva Chernick, Judith Lander, Lenka Lichtenberg, Theresa Tova, and music director Fern Lindzon. Each of them draws on their own musical heritage in reviving the music of the dark period of European history, as well as presenting original music inspired by it.
JazzInToronto’s Artistic Director Ori Dagan plays host for the evening that combines historical storytelling with music performance. It illustrates how artists can use their creativity both as a refuge, and a means of resistance, during difficult times.
The performance comes after three shows at the ROM in a collaboration that was commissioned in conjunction with the exhibit Auschwitz: Not Long Ago. Not Far Away.
The Concert
Selections include:
- Telling Stories by Theresa Tova and John Alcorn
- Numbers on My Arm by composer Rebekah Wolkstein, with Yiddish text from the Terrace Holocaust
- Survivors Group at the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care
- Remember the Sun by Rachel Cohen and Lenka Lichtenberg, using a Czech poem by Lenka’s grandmother Anna Hana Friesova, translated to English by Lenka
- Under Dayne Vayse Shtern (Under Your White Starry Heaven) with music by Abraham Brudno and
- Yiddish lyrics by Abraham Sutskever, translated to English by Hindy Nosek Abelson
- Nje Buditche, a Roma song from Auschwitz, collected by Esther Bejarano, with an English translation by Lenka Lichtenberg
- Arvoles Yoran por Luvias (Trees Cry for Rain), a Judeo Spanish folk song
- Seerauber-Jenny (Pirate Jenny) by Kurt Weill (composer) and Bertolt Brecht (lyrics)
- Shtil Di Nacht (Still the Night) by Hirsh Glik, English translation by Theresa Tovahs with Hindy Nosek Abelson
- Rikordus di mi Nona in Judeo-Spanish by Flory Jagoda z”l
- Weigala by Ilse Weber, English translation and arrangement by Lenka Lichtenberg
- Vu Ahin Zol Ick Geyn (Tell Me Where I Shall Go) with music by Oscar Strock or Zigmund Berland, and lyrics by S. Korntayer, Theresa Tovahs with Hindy Nosek Abelson
- Zog Nit Keyn Mol (Don’t Say Never) Hymn of the Partisans, music by Dmitri Pokrass, Yiddish poem by Hersh Glik
Performers
Aviva Chernick
Award-wining Aviva Chernick is a multi-lingual global music artist, singing in Hebrew, Ladino, and English. She leads and tours with her own ensemble, Aviva Chernick and La Serena Quartet, creating reimagined Judeo-Spanish folk music to bring that musical heritage into the present day. She is also a founding member of the Canadian world music group Jaffa Road. She has performed across North America, Israel, and Brazil, and recently in Dubai. Her recordings have been nominated for multiple JUNO and Canadian Folk Music Awards.
Judith Lander
Judith Lander is a native of Winnipeg, She is a singer, Broadway actress, cabaret performer, and composer for ballet with an international reputation. Performance credits include starring in Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris on Broadway. She also performed it alongside Brel himself at Carnegie Hall. Judith also co-starred in Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill under the mentorship of Lotte Lenya. Judith is also a passionate educator with a busy private studio.
Lenka Lichtenberg
Lenka Lichtenberg is a JUNO Award winning vocalist, composer, cantorial soloist, and producer who regularly tours internationally. She draws from Toronto’s intercultural scene to create her own unique sound. Her 2023 album Thieves of Dreams, based on poems she discovered that had been written by her grandmother while imprisoned in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, garnered a JUNO Award for Best Global Album of the Year. She has also won several Canadian Folk Music awards, and been nominated multiple times for several others.
Theresa Tova
Theresa Tova has toured the world as Yiddish Diva!, and wrote, co-produced, and starred in Still The Night, which took him four Dora Awards, and earned a nomination for the Governor General’s Award for English-language drama at the 1999 Governor General’s Awards. The daughter of Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors, she was born in Paris, and raised in Calgary, Alberta. The singer and musical theatre actress combined Jewish music, vaudeville and klezmer in Still the Night, a story of two young girls who survive the Holocaust in a Polish forest.
Fern Lindzon
The JUNO nominated pianist, vocalist, and arranged Fern Lindzon has performed in jazz clubs in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria, Ottawa and Waterloo, and at several music festivals in Ontario. She has composed and improvised music for classic silent films which were screened at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the Toronto Silent Film Festival and the Vintage Film Festival. Fern has recorded several albums of jazz, including the JUNO nominated Like a Circle in a Spiral.
- Find details and tickets for the January 14 concert [HERE].
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