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Alexandre Tansman fled the Nazis for America in the late 1930s; Wladyslaw Szpilman was a Polish pianist and classical composer of Jewish descent. Szpilman is widely known as the central figure in the 2002 Roman Polanski film The Pianist, which was based on Szpilman's autobiographical account of how he survived the German occupation of Warsaw and the Holocaust; Simon (Szymon) Laks (1 November 1901 – 11 December 1983) became head of the prisoners' orchestra at Birkenau-Auschwitz; Tadeusz Kassern survived the war in Lviv, Cracow and Warsaw, using false papers to hide from the Gestapo; Karol Rathaus fled Berlin in 1932 on the eve of the Nazis taking power.

Alexandre Tansman fled the Nazis for America in the late 1930s; Wladyslaw Szpilman was a Polish pianist and classical composer of Jewish descent. Szpilman is widely known as the central figure in the 2002 Roman Polanski film The Pianist, which was based on Szpilman's autobiographical account of how he survived the German occupation of Warsaw and the Holocaust; Simon (Szymon) Laks (1 November 1901 – 11 December 1983) became head of the prisoners' orchestra at Birkenau-Auschwitz; Jerzy Fitelberg escaped the Nazis to America in 1940, through Paris; Karol Rathaus fled Berlin in 1932 on the eve of the Nazis taking power; Mieczyslaw Weinberg fled to the Soviet union as the war began, but lost his parents and younger sister Esther in the Trawniki concentration camp.

John Boyne’s masterpiece The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas still features regularly on international bestseller lists nearly two decades after its initial publication in 2006. Boyne’s story is a symbolic exploration of one reason why the Holocaust remains so traumatic: it demonstrates to future generations the relentlessly organised barbarity of which humanity is capable.

This chamber opera addresses the Holocaust in a way audiences of every age can engage with. The project has been supported by internationally-renowned organisations including the Community Security Trust and the Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust.

Cobweb Orchestra is the only amateur orchestra in the country brave enough to tackle the unusual repertoire explored during our festival. This year, they will be performing the Szymon Laks Poeme for violin and orchestra with Royal Northern Sinfonia's Iona Brown as the soloist. Szymon Laks was incarcerated at Birchenough-Auschwitz where he became the leader of the man's orchestra.

Josima Feldschuh was a wunderkind pianist and composer from a Jewish family in Warsaw. She died in 1943 at the age of 15 whilst fleeing Warsaw Ghetto. Josima would talk about how she wanted to become a composer one day, to “prove the world” that women are not only capable of playing pieces written by others, but also of composing music themselves.

She left a manuscript of perfectly handwritten 17 piano pieces which she composed from as early as age 9 up to her death. These are currently kept at the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem.

We have selected four of those pieces which will be interspersed throughout the Closing Concert programme. The closing piece will be Brundibár Arts Festival Commission 2024 dedicated to Josima. The piece will be for piano quintet and tenor. Sections from Josima’s father’s diary will be used for the vocal part which will be sang in Yiddish.

We have commissioned the piece to be written by Ukranian composer Volodymyr Runchak who is currently a war refugee in Poland near Warsaw.