MOR’s 25/26 season: revelatory premieres by Cipullo, Heggie & Byrd
Production image from Before It All Goes Dark, MOR’s 2024 collaboration with acclaimed journalist Howard Reich / photo by Terry Lorant
Music of Remembrance Announces 2025/26 Season
COURAGE & CONSCIENCE
West Coast Premiere of Jake Heggie’s Crossing Borders
Seattle • October 26, 2025
World Premiere Dance from Donald Byrd for Milhaud’s La création du monde
Seattle • March 15, 2026
World Premiere Tour of Tom Cipullo and Howard Reich’s The Dialogue of Memories
Seattle • May 17, 2026
San Francisco • May 20, 2026
Chicago • May 23–24, 2026
SEATTLE, WA – July 28, 2025 – Based in Seattle and nationally recognized for its socially urgent programming, Music of Remembrance (MOR) has been a catalyst for change for nearly three decades – commissioning and presenting works that explore the consequences of intolerance. Recent premieres spotlight the persuasive way that MOR speaks truth to power, addressing the women’s rights struggle in Iran, the separation of families at the US-Mexico border, and the legacy of slavery in America.
The organization’s mission feels especially timely today as arts communities face escalating political volatility, the dismantling of inclusive programming, and sweeping funding cuts. The abrupt termination of MOR’s annual NEA grant earlier this year, triggered by a dramatic realignment of arts priorities by the current administration, only amplified the company’s resolve. MOR Artistic Director Mina Miller told Real Change News, “We are determined to do what we feel is right and what makes a difference in the world.”
The 2025/26 season examines these mounting risks to civil liberties and artistic freedom with a season-long exploration of courage and conscience. Concerts will feature works inspired by a young refugee fleeing an authoritarian regime and teenagers trapped in a concentration camp. Audiences will also hear music by artists active in the French Resistance and Harlem Renaissance, and the world premiere of an opera based on acclaimed journalist Howard Reich’s encounters with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel.
“Our programs this season are more than concerts – they’re an urgent call to conscience,” said Miller. “In a world facing rising oppression and mass displacement, the time for quiet acceptance is over. We must confront injustice by reflecting on our humanity and recognizing the full humanity of others. We hope audiences are moved to act – in their own ways, in their own communities – to push back against the rising tide of intolerance.”
This season’s premieres bring the organization’s total commissions to 50 new works, including song cycles, chamber works, operas, film scores, and choreography – all using art to confront compelling issues in today’s world.
Members of the MOR Chamber Ensemble / photo by Ben Van Houten
Witness to Courage
October 26, 2025 • Benaroya Hall in Seattle
Music of Remembrance opens their season with Witness to Courage, featuring the West Coast premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s Crossing Borders. Commissioned by the George and Nora London Foundation, the cycle is based on the WWII-era diaries of Nora (née Schapiro), tracing the dramatic story of her family’s escape from occupied France to America when she was 16 years old. This deeply personal account was discovered posthumously in a locked diary among London’s possessions, and spans a wartime retreat through Paris, Lisbon, and New York.
Throughout the program, works give voice to those navigating unfamiliar landscapes. Paul Schoenfield’s Sparks of Glory is based on four true accounts of heroic deeds during the Holocaust, while William Hilsley wrote charming dances that belied the circumstances of their creation at Kreuzberg Internment Camp. Reflecting his Hungarian roots, Géza Frid’s string trio was written after the composer fled to the Netherlands to escape the dictatorship of his homeland.
Pages from the secret magazine Vedem from Terezín concentration camp / courtesy of Terezín Memorial Museum
Art From Ashes
January 26, 2026 • Benaroya Hall in Seattle
The centerpiece for the 2026 iteration of MOR’s free community concert is Lori Laitman’s oratorio Vedem, with a libretto by David Mason that shares an incredible true story. In the early 1940s, a group of teenage boys in the Terezín concentration camp shared poems, stories, and artwork in a secret weekly magazine they called Vedem – “In the Lead” in Czech. The boys’ resistance continued for over two years, making Vedem the longest-running magazine produced by prisoners inside a Nazi camp. The MOR-commissioned work features soprano Vanessa Isiguen, tenor Martin Bakari, and Northwest Boychoir.
MOR will augment this annual gift to the community by offering free streaming of their 2011 feature documentary The Boys of Terezín from January 17–27, 2026. Directed by Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist John Sharify, the documentary chronicles the magazine’s creation in Terezín and the unlikely reunion of four survivors in Seattle, at an MOR concert held in their honor more than six decades later.
Spectrum Dance Theater in Identity with Music of Remembrance / photo by Jim Coleman
Echoes of Conscience
March 15, 2026 • Benaroya Hall in Seattle
In Echoes of Conscience, MOR spotlights works by members of the Front National des Musiciens – musical artists active in the French resistance under Nazi occupation – and the prominent “Les Six,” a group of early 20th-century composers known for their eclectic musical styles and influences. Of special interest is Darius Milhaud’s La création du monde, inspired by a trip to Harlem, which evokes African creation myths through a blend of jazz and classical idioms. This work takes on added dimension with new choreography commissioned from Spectrum Dance Theater’s Donald Byrd, who aims to make dance an integral partner in civic dialogue as we seek solutions to the challenges facing our communities.
Also on the program: a medley of songs popularized by Harlem Renaissance performer Josephine Baker, who escaped racism in America to become an icon of resistance and social justice reform in France, and Marmalade Sonata by French composer Manuel Rosenthal, who managed to maintain an active musical life – even organizing concerts – as a prisoner of war after being captured by Nazi soldiers.
Elie Wiesel and Howard Reich in conversation / photo by Nancy Stone for Chicago Tribune
The Dialogue of Memories
May 17, 2026 • Benaroya Hall in Seattle
May 20, 2026 • Presidio Theatre in San Francisco
May 23–24, 2026 • Studebaker Theater in Chicago
In a three-city tour, Music of Remembrance presents the world premiere of Tom Cipullo’s The Dialogue of Memories, with a libretto by celebrated Chicago Tribune journalist Howard Reich in collaboration with Cipullo. Based on the real-life Holocaust survival stories of Reich’s parents, the opera follows Reich as he searches for meaning in his mother Sonia’s lasting trauma – and encounters Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel. Dominic Armstrong takes on the role of the journalist, while husband-and-wife duo Michael Mayes and Megan Marino appear as Wiesel and Sonia. Drawn from Reich’s book The Art of Inventing Hope: Intimate Conversations with Elie Wiesel, the opera premieres just prior to the 10th anniversary of Wiesel’s passing.
“We are living in a world in which humanity is being constantly retraumatized,” said Howard Reich. “You don’t have to look far – it’s occurring right here at home via urban violence, mass shootings, and masked men seizing immigrants off the street. Children witnessing these catastrophes today will carry the trauma with them for the rest of their lives, as Sonia and Elie did. With this opera, I hope music’s visceral and emotional power will help audiences understand the long-lived consequences of terrorism and violence.”
The opera premieres at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall on May 17, 2026, before traveling to the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco on May 20, 2026, and concluding at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago’s Fine Arts Building on May 23–24, 2026.
“This opera reminds us that memory alone isn’t enough,” said Mina Miller, MOR’s Artistic Director. “We must decide what we’re going to do with it. In a time when truth is under siege and history is being erased, we need art that inspires us to act, to speak out. We must carry memory forward with purpose – to make it a testimony for tomorrow.”
Witness to Courage
Sunday, October 26, 2026 @ 3:00pm
West Coast Premiere: Crossing Borders by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer
with Catherine Cook, mezzo-soprano
Plus works by Géza Frid, William Hilsley, and Paul Schoenfield
with Rachel Jung, violin (2025 David Tonkonogui Memorial Award recipient)
Benaroya Hall (200 University Street)
Seattle, Washington
Tickets $60; Students $25 (ID required)
https://musicofremembrance.org/show-details/witness
Art From Ashes
Monday, January 26, 2026 @ 5:30pm
Featuring MOR Commission: Vedem by Lori Laitman and David Mason
with Northwest Boychoir led by Jacob Winkler; Vanessa Isiguen, soprano; and Martin Bakari, tenor
Benaroya Hall (200 University Street)
Seattle, Washington
Tickets: Free. Reserved seating, reservations required.
https://musicofremembrance.org/show-details/afa2026
Echoes of Conscience
Sunday, March 15, 2026 @ 3:00pm
World Premiere: La création du monde
Choreographed by Donald Byrd to existing music by Darius Milhaud
with Spectrum Dance Theater
Plus works by Georges Auric, Paul Arma, Francis Poulenc, Manuel Rosenthal, and songs popularized by Josephine Baker
with Jacqueline Tabor, chanteuse; Michael Brockman, saxophone; and Tom Wang, clarinet (2025 David Tonkonogui Memorial Award recipient)
Benaroya Hall (200 University Street)
Seattle, Washington
Tickets $60; Students $25 (ID required)
https://musicofremembrance.org/show-details/echoes
The Dialogue of Memories
World Premiere Tour • Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago
Composer: Tom Cipullo
Librettist: Howard Reich & Tom Cipullo
Conductor: Alastair Willis
Director: Erich Parce
Media Design: Peter Crompton
Elie Wiesel: Michael Mayes
Sonia Reich: Megan Marino
Howard Reich: Dominic Armstrong
MOR Chamber Ensemble: Christina Medawar, flute; Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Walter Gray, cello; Cristina Valdes, piano
Sunday, May 17, 2026 @ 4:00pm
Seattle, Washington
Benaroya Hall (200 University Street)
Tickets $60; Students $25 (ID required)
https://musicofremembrance.org/show-details/memories
Wednesday, May 20, 2026 @ 7:30pm
San Francisco, California
Presidio Theatre (99 Moraga Avenue)
Tickets $38–71
https://musicofremembrance.org/show-details/memoriessf
Saturday, May 23, 2026 @ 7:30pm
Sunday, May 24, 2026 @ 3:00pm
Chicago, Illinois
Studebaker Theater (Fine Arts Building)
Tickets $35–75
https://musicofremembrance.org/show-details/memorieschi
About Music of Remembrance
Established in 1998, Music of Remembrance (MOR) pays tribute to historic memory and directly confronts challenges to human rights and dignity today. In addition to its work discovering and performing music from the Holocaust, MOR is admired around the world for its leadership in commissioning, having premiered 48 new works by leading composers. This includes varied chamber ensembles, song cycles, choral works, dance music, film scores, musical dramas, and full-length operas – all using art to confront compelling issues in today’s world. MOR’s online concerts, nine albums, three documentary films, and many outreach programs have added to the impact experienced by live audiences. MOR’s annual David Tonkonogui Memorial Award welcomes new generations along on this journey, nurturing young musicians who seek to address issues of human rights through their art.
Press Contact: Beth Stewart
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Tel: 618.444.3183 | Email: beth@verismopr.com
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