Murry Sidlin , professor, music, was interviewed about his concert-drama Defiant Requiem for The Jewish Week. See below.
From: The Jewish Week Date: March 3, 2015 Author: George Robinson
It was a simple act, one that book-lovers perform every day. But it changed Murry Sidlin's career forever.
Twenty years ago on a beautiful spring day in Minneapolis, Sidlin, already a highly regarded orchestra conductor and professor of music, found himself walking past a used bookstore in front of which was a table piled high with bargains. Naturally, he recalled in a telephone interview from his home near Baltimore last week, he stopped to browse, and in the midst of a wobbly pyramid of paperbacks noticed one book that was sticking out slightly.
"It became a game, to see if I could extract that one book without disturbing the pile," he said, laughing. "And I did."
The book was a small work entitled "Music in Terezin," a short précis of the difficult but rich cultural life created by the Jewish prisoners of the concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.
Sidlin was riveted and baffled. And energized. "Defiant Requiem," the program that he would create in response, would take many forms, from an Emmy-nominated documentary film to a series of widely acclaimed concerts with narration. In that latter form, "Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin" will be performed Monday, March 9.
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Read more about Sidlin's expertise .