What
People are Saying About the Holocaust Cantata: Songs from the Camps
 What
the music directors are saying …
"What a fine and moving composition this is—the students
absolutely loved singing the piece and the audience was moved to
tears. It’s one of those pieces that reaches places in the
soul where things often remain untouched.”
Dennis K. Cox, D.M.A.
Director of Choral Music, University of Maine
Orono, Maine
"The conception of this cantata is so strikingly original
and the music works so perfectly with the texts, both read and sung.
Our audience sat in stunned silence at the end, which seemed the
only right response.”
Rodney A. Wynkoop, Ph. D.
Director of Choral Music, Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
"The students have completed two successful performances of
the Cantata. It was so well received that two temples in surrounding
towns are requesting encore performances! We also did an assembly
here at Cheshire High School for nearly 600 students, faculty and
administrators. We have all grown so much from our experiences with
this piece.”
Beth Rosenblatt
Director of Choral Music, Cheshire High School
Cheshire, Connecticut
"We were honored to present such a moving choral work. It
was an outstanding educational experience for our students.”
Patrick Castro
Director of Choral Music, Snohomish High School
Snohomish, Washington
"Each year our school district hosts a Masterworks Concert
in late January or early February consisting of 11th and 12th grade
students from all four high schools in the district. In past years
we have performed such works as Haydn Lord Nelson Mass, Mozart Mass
in C, Bernstein Chichester Psalms, Rutter Requiem and Rutter Gloria.
Next year we are planning to feature Donald McCullough’s Holocaust
Cantata.”
Dwayne E. Dunn, Ph.D.
Director of Choral Activities, Olathe East High School
Olathe, Kansas
"I cannot tell you how much my Chorale has loved singing Holocaust
Cantata.”
Carolyn Eynon
Artistic Director, Arizona Arts Chorale
Scottsdale, Arizona
"It was an amazing experience for me and for my choir. Our
audience was stunned to silence.”
Gregory Ruffer
Music Director, The Orlando Chorale
Orlando, FL
"It was an honor to present this work. I would like to thank
Donald McCullough for giving voice to a people in a way that gives
us all an opportunity to remember—not only the horror, but
also the beauty of the lives destroyed when oppression and ignorance
supercede compassion and understanding.”
Robert Shoup
Music Director, Virginia Chorale
Norfolk, VA
What the performers are saying …
"Performing music that Holocaust victims were only able to
whisper in their hearts has been a great honor. The very least we
can do is remember, and perhaps, in this way, we can do our part
to make sure that history never again repeats itself.”
Kimberly Barrante, HS Senior (Soprano)
Cheshire High School
Cheshire, CT
"The Cantata is not a ‘downer.’ The message is
that the human spirit can be kept alive by artistic expression—that
music can make a living hell at least bearable…. And as one
of the few Jews in the choir, I also find that one of the Cantata’s
most uplifting values is to see folks who have had little or no relationship
with the goings-on during the Holocaust gaining new insights.”
Ray Litt, Baritone and Choir President
Rackham Symphony Choir
Detroit, MI
"Even though I’m not Jewish, I have done a lot of work
with Israelis and grew up in a town with a number of Holocaust survivors.
I found Holocaust Cantata an incredibly powerful work; it took all
my concentration not to “lose it” during some of the
readings. The music manages to be both understated and overwhelming
at the same time. It was a privilege to participate in the world
premiere.”
Tim Hoyt, Baritone
The Washington Singers
Washington, DC
"Donald McCullough’s Holocaust Cantata will
be performed in Wooster and Kidron, Ohio on November 8 and 9 by the
Cantate Singers.
I was asked to play the cello for these events….I wanted to
let you know that I really feel moved every time I practice the Cantata.”
Terry W. Ling, Cellist
Wooster, Ohio
What the audience is saying …
"I have never experienced a musical performance that touched
me as deeply and powerfully as last night’s performance of
Holocaust Cantata at the Library of Congress…. This
composition doesn’t exploit the emotional aspect of the subject
matter as it could. Rather, by its clarity of purpose, balance—even
restraint—it offers a glimpse into the daily horrors that thousands
of individuals faced while also demonstrating how they found comfort
in secretly expressing themselves through the power of words and
music.”
Sherry Schiller, Ph.D.
Alexandria, Virginia
"Holocaust Cantata was, beyond any doubt, one of the most
heart-wrenching and touching musical works I have ever heard. I was
absolutely riveted to my seat from the first note to the last, as
were all those around me.”
Fran Blendermann
Silver Spring, Maryland
"Each movement was my favorite until I heard the next one.
The work is such a rich tapestry of textures, colors, intensities,
and patterns, all woven together in a way that makes it impossible
to imagine them in any other form.”
Kathleen Franz
Chesapeake, Virginia
"We thoroughly enjoyed the first half of last night’s
concert, but the Cantata is in a league by itself. We want to thank
you for even thinking of creating a work like this and for piecing
it together with such skill and inspiration. It is hard to express
how moved we were; tears well up just thinking about it. We are Jewish,
but it didn’t matter what people were—they all seemed
equally moved.”
Kitty and Walt Sherwin
Bethesda, Maryland
"The concert last night was magnificent in every detail! I
took three students with me who sat mesmerized throughout the concert.
The Cantata is, indeed, a work of art, and I hope it will enjoy many
more performances, because it really pulls listeners in and takes
them on an important journey.”
Mary-Hannah Klontz
Director of Choral Music,
Arlington, Virginia
"It is seldom that I have been as deeply moved by anything
as I was by the Washington Singers’ performance of Holocaust
Cantata.”
Betty Wildman
Bethesda, Maryland
"Holocaust Cantata is a very powerful piece that successfully
puts a human face on a horrible episode of modern history without
becoming maudlin. Thank you for this important creation—I so
hope it will be done over and over throughout the country.”
Debbi Iwig
Bethesda, Maryland
"It was the most moving musical experience I have ever had.”
Hugh A. McGaughy
St. Louis, Missouri
"It was a powerful, emotional experience. From the first notes
that were played, I was pulled in. The artistry and skill of every
person involved immediately freed me from just listening to notes
and words and I was taken to a place where only music can take you.”
Kerry Arnold
Centreville, Virginia
"We were overwhelmed! What an incredible performance!
Edith and George Lowy
Silver Spring, Maryland
What the music critics are saying …
"Those in attendance were richly rewarded from the program’s
first note to the last.”
Bill Blankenship
The Capital-Journal (on the event of Washburn University’s Topeka Festival
Singers’ performance of Holocaust Cantata)
Topeka, Kansas
"Voices from the past filled the Kennedy Center on Tuesday
night—not muted voices, but vibrant, engaging ones, deeply
involved with life although most of the people represented are long
dead. It was the world premiere of Holocaust Cantata, a cycle of
songs and spoken prose written by prisoners in Nazi concentration
camps selected and arranged by Donald McCullough from material archived
at the Holocaust Museum…. The people in the camps
were vividly evoked in an experience that should linger long in the
audience’s memory and should be regularly revived, perhaps
in an annual concert at the Holocaust Museum.”
Joseph McClellan, Music Critic
The Washington Post
Washington, DC
"Given its emotional depth, it was not surprising that Virginia
Chorale Director Robert Shoup got the most effective performance
from his singers in their performance
of Donald McCullough’s Holocaust Cantata, a set of haunting arrangements
of songs from the concentration camps of World War II. They seemed inspired
to dig into the overwhelming sorrow of the words and then express it through
varied tones that retained their beauty even in such pain.”
Lee Teply, Music Critic
The Virginian-Pilot
Norfolk, VA
 |
