UAB Department of Music faculty recital: “Reclaiming Degenerate Art: Music of Jewish Composers." 

Sunday, April 7

UAB Department of Music faculty recital: “Reclaiming Degenerate Art: Music of Jewish Composers.” 

Soprano Kristine Hurst-Wajszczuk will present her annual faculty solo recital, with Yakov Kasman (piano), Denise Gainey (clarinet) and Alabama Symphony Orechestra Concert Master Daniel Szasz (violin). The program features music by Mendelssohn, G. Mahler, new arrangements of Yiddish folk songs, three Yiddish songs by Ullmann, and cabaret songs by Schoenberg. During the 1930s and 40s, the Nazis banned and often confiscated art created by Jews, calling it “degenerate.” This recital reclaims that art and includes music considered unallowable in the concert hall during that bleak period. Many Jewish composers fled Europe; others were not so lucky. Ullmann composed the songs that will be performed while he was imprisoned at Terezin; he was murdered at Auschwitz in 1944. This recital will include projected translations and artwork by artists such as Picasso, Chagall, Beckman, Dalí and Klee, as well as contemporary pieces by Jewish-Russian artist Alexander Rokhlin. 2 p.m., UAB’s Alys Stephens Center, Reynolds-Kirschbaum Concert Hall. Free.