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To some people it may sound farfetched that orchestral music
was not only performed but even composed in some Czech concentration
camps, but the truth is that the work of some Jewish composers
actually flourished during World War II while the composers and
musicians were confined. It surely astounded Fulbright Scholar
Mark Ludwig, who, while performing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra,
came across a reference to music being performed in concentration
camps during the Holocaust.
When he initially came into contact with these compositions,
Ludwig was "just struck by the beauty and power of the music
and the history of these composers - their lives, their promising
careers before the war, as well as their creativity during their
incarceration periods." He saw that this music represents
not only a cultural but a social legacy: it touches on censorship,
propaganda, and music as resistance. In many ways, the music "stirs
our awareness of these issues in a contemporary context."
Having developed a passion for this music and its composers,
Ludwig thought the Fulbright Scholar Program would provide an
opportunity to pursue his commitment to researching and uncovering
the music composed by artists who perished in the Holocaust. Sharing
this research through publications and performance would be a
great vehicle for cultural exchange, Ludwig recognized.
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On his Fulbright grant, Ludwig spent a rewarding period from
March to July 1996 in Terezin in the Czech Republic, a small town
known for its Jewish detention camp during World War II. While
there, he went through existing documentation, cataloging and
gathering as much music as possible from the Holocaust period
in order to gain a clearer picture of how a cultural community
was organized and how it further developed under the oppression
of the Holocaust. Ludwig had traveled to the Czech Republic several
times before and has returned since ending his Fulbright, but
the Fulbright Program allowed him a more extensive visit. It enabled
him to gain a deeper understanding of the composers' work and
their commitments by immersing himself in places where these composers
lived and by getting a better sense of the culture and environment
in which they developed.
For Ludwig the most rewarding part of the Fulbright experience
is what has come of it. He is able to go out on concert stages
around the world and share music he has been researching for over
15 years. Moreover, he finds it extremely gratifying "to
be able to not only share the music - that many people are getting
to hear for the first time - but then to go into classrooms and
lecture in different parts of the world and different cultures
about the history of the music that, although is in a particular
time and place, treat themes of the human condition. This is a
true cultural exchange."
Ludwig is currently working on a book, continuing to lecture on
this music and its history, and producing concerts and recordings.
In September 2004 Ludwig and the Hawthorne String Quartet will
tour the Czech Republic. This will be more than just a Czech-American
cultural program; it will also mark the 60th anniversary of the
last transports to Auschwitz that decimated the Terezin cultural
community. The tour is being organized by the Terezin Chamber
Music Foundation, an organization Ludwig founded to assure the
permanence of the music written by composers who perished in the
Holocaust and to connect it to contemporary issues of tolerance
and expression of human rights.
The US Ambassador to the Czech Republic has given his honorary
patronage to this TCMF tour. Ambassador William J. Cabaniss, Jr
will host a special event for the TCMF tour group celebrating
the achievements of TCMF, TCMF director and Fulbright scholar
Mark Ludwig and the incoming Fulbright scholars to the Czech Republic
for 2004-05. Musical works featured at the US Embassy in Prague
will include Terezín compositions and a string quartet
by Boston area composer David L. Post. Mr. Post will join the
tour entourage.
This tour is a celebration of the unique life-affirming spirit
of the artists of Terezín, and blends remembrance with
examination.
To learn more about Mark Ludwig and the work of the Terezin Chamber
Music Foundation, please visit http://www.terezinmusic.org.
Please contact us
if you would like to submit your own story and/or photographs.
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