The KGA Functional Art Furniture bench program is proud to support the Orel Foundation and the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices in their effort to bring awareness to the music by composers suppressed by the Nazi regime. Kelly Gale Amen recently attended the Second International Symposium of the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices in Los Angeles. Here he is seen alongside James Conlon and Marilyn Ziering.

Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices

The Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices, inspired by the LA Opera’s groundbreaking Recovered Voices project encompasses performances, seminars, academic conferences, and competitions that build upon LA Opera Music Director James Conlon’s longtime dedication to bringing attention to the music by composers suppressed by the Nazi regime. The recovered Voices name is used with permission from LA Opera. Inspiring awareness and performance of music from this era, the Ziering-Conlon Initiative provides an optimal setting for a deeper understanding of the history of music from the first half of the twentieth century.

Second International Symposium

“How Should We Perform the Troubled Past? A Weekend of Concerts and Conversation”

October 8–9, 2016
Thayer Hall

Symposium Overview

The last decades have seen a large number of concerts presenting music associated with fraught times and places. Whether they involve string quartets offering the works of Shostakovich as political and personal statements, operas by exile composers, concerts specifically in memory of, or even stagings of historical performances, these musical offerings claim our attention in particular ways, making a tacit claim that they somehow differ from normal concert life. But what is “normal concert life,” and how do we understand performances that aspire to a kind of “hyper-musicality,” through their connection to the past?

This event will explore the relationship between the stories told about specific musical works, the contexts in which they are presented, and the ways in which performers and audiences respond to the material. Does knowing that a particular composer was on a train to Auschwitz a week after finishing a particular composition, or that a piece was written under brutal censorship, affect the way we play it and listen to it? And is that a good thing, or should performers focus on the score and forget the back story? And can a performer’s choices be somehow quantified through analysis and reflection or are they too ephemeral and contingent?

The Ziering-Conlon Initiative is made possible by a generous grant from Marilyn Ziering.

Find out more:

Orel Foundation
Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices
KGA Functional Art Furniture Bench Program