SHADOWS: Songs from Testimonies of the Fortunoff Video Archive (CAS MillerComm)

January 27, 2025

Spurlock Museum Knight Auditoriu,

Zisl Slepovitch's Ensemble and Sarah Myerson present a selection of songs discovered, curated, transcribed, and arranged by Dr. D. Zisl Slepovitch, Musician-in-Residence at Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University, a unique collection of 4400 interviews conducted mainly in the 1980’s–90's. The songs in the program provide a series of insights into the Holocaust survivors’ experiences both during World War II and in the pre-war time as they were growing up. The widely diverse compositions form a timeline that helps recreate a multidimensional image of people’s lives and the multiple identities they carried — as Jews by faith and roots, and as European citizens — Poles, Germans, Russians– by culture. These identities were shaped during the vibrant and dynamic interwar period, which is represented by several songs. The core of the program, however, conveys the ways people managed to survive during the Holocaust, not in the least thanks to the support they gained through the songs they wrote and sang in the ghettos and concentration camps all across Central and Eastern Europe. The songs in many languages are arranged and interwoven with the matching instrumental pieces performed by a 4-piece instrumental ensemble.

Hosted by: Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, & Memory Studies

In conjunction with: Center for Global Studies, Department of Comparative & World Literature, Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, Humanities Research Institute, Program in Jewish Culture & Society, Russian, East European, & Eurasian Center, School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics

Zisl Slepovitch, Musician-in-Residence, Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University

• Sarah Myerson, vocalist

• Taylor Bergren-Chrisman, double bass
• Joshua Camp, accordion, keyboard
• Craig Judelman, violin
• Zisl Slepovitch, clarinet