James Whitbourn’s Annelies: A Holocaust Remembrance Concert

The South Bend Chamber Singers present British composer James Whitbourn’s Annelies

Libretto by Melanie Challenger based on
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

with
Elizabeth Schleicher, soprano
and chamber ensemble

Sunday, April 23, 2017
7:30 p.m.
Temple Beth-El
305 West Madison Street
South Bend, Indiana

Sponsored by the Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley and the
Kurt and Tessye Simon Fund for Holocaust Remembrance

British composer James Whitbourn’s cantata, Annelies, is the first major choral setting of “The Diary of Anne Frank.” It takes the teenager’s remarkable and penetrating observations, written while hiding in an Amsterdam attic, as the basis for its extraordinary and moving libretto. Whitbourn’s music for this work has been described as “woundingly beautiful” (The Daily Telegraph). He reflects sounds of the Westerkerk bells and tunes heard on the radio in the Annex, along with representations of Anne Frank’s Jewish and German heritage, details that add to a score “whose respectful understatement is its greatest strength” (The Times).

Free and Open to the Public