In 2017, University of Michigan music theory professor Patricia Hall traveled to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum to conduct research on manuscripts in their collection. This concert will feature ten short pieces arranged by Polish political prisoners who were members of the Auschwitz I men’s orchestra. Using popular German hits of the 1930s and 40s, they arranged and orchestrated these tangos, waltzes, and foxtrots for a dance band that played Sunday concerts for the Auschwitz garrison near the camp commandant’s villa.
 
Led by conductor Oriol Sans, an SMTD student ensemble will perform the pieces interspersed with lines spoken by the singers, from testimonies and interviews with members of the Auschwitz I men’s orchestra after the war. Silent for more than seventy years, the voices and arrangements of these Auschwitz prisoners will be brought to life.

Registration encouraged: https://myumi.ch/G1D65