American Music Festivals Welcome Spring

American Music Festivals presents two concerts by the Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra, Saturday March 19, 6 PM at the Ukrainian National Museum of Chicago, 2249 W. Superior St., Chicago, and Sunday, March 20, 3PM, at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

On March 19, “Ukrainian Culture in Chicago,” will feature Ukrainian composers Mykhaylo Verbytsky, Dmitri Bortniansky, Mykola Leontovych, Mykola Lysenko, Fydor Akimenko, Sergei Prokofiev, and Quincy Porter’s “Ukrainian Suite.” The March 20 “Chinese-Jewish Friendship Concert” features the premiere of “Prayer” by Chicago composer Gong Qian Yang and erhu soloist Guang Long Li. It includes music of Abing, Justin Elie, Albert Ketelby, Pavel Haas, Julius Schloss, and Bao Yuankai. American Music Festivals’ Composer in Residence Ilya Levinson’s “Kupala Dreams” will be performed on both concerts.

The program of Ukrainian and American music is hosted by the Ukrainian National Museum of Chicago, which is celebrating its 70th Anniversary. American Music Festivals previously explored cultural connections with Ukraine in its 2017 “Kupala” concert in Chicago by the Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra, which featured music of Ukraine,Poland, Belarus, and the USA.

The “Chinese-Jewish Friendship Concert” at the Oriental Institute will explore themes of tolerance and exoticism. It will build upon American Music Festivals long tradition of outreach to Chicago’s Chinese and Jewish communities. The March 20 concert will highlight the remarkable story of Chinese tolerance for Jews escaping the Holocaust who were welcomed in Shanghai, integrating into its cultural life. The concert will also serve as a remembrance event for American Music Festivals Artistic Director Philip Simmons’ late stepfather, Dr. James Yeung, who was originally from Hong Kong.

Over the last couple years American Music Festivals has brought the Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra to diverse venues throughout Chicago including the DuSable Museum of African American History, Benito Juarez Community Academy, St. Sophia Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the Copernicus Center, Lincoln Hall Middle School, and the Baha’i House of Worship. Through sharing cultures in these communities, American Music Festivals believes that through the beauty of music we can all come together. More about American Music Festivals

Addendum:

In the 1930s and 40s, while most places shut their doors to refugees, tens of thousands of European Jews sought refuge in Shanghai.

You can find information about a related exhibition HERE

And a Chicago Splash Magazine article about the exhibition  (excerpts below):

European Jews who were shut out of country after country while trying to escape Nazi persecution in the 1930s and 1940s found a beacon of hope in Shanghai, China. In 1938, hundreds of Jewish refugees arrived in Shanghai, with thousands more following in the coming years. By 1941, around 20,000 Jews found refuge there.

In early 1943, Shanghai was under Japanese occupation, and Japanese authorities relocated all stateless refugees — Jews who had arrived after 1937 — into the Shanghai ghetto. The ghetto was cramped, disease-ridden, and dirty, but ultimately safe for its Jewish inhabitants who were treated humanely by their Chinese neighbors. For the remaining years of the war, they were confined to the ghetto and could leave only with passes issued by Japanese authorities.

Photos: Courtesy of Philip Simmons