Performance as Protest: Music of Remembrance’s Echoes of Conscience
Spectrum Dance Theater with Music of Remembrance / photo by Jim Coleman
Performance as Protest: Music of Remembrance’s Echoes of Conscience
World premiere choreography by Donald Byrd anchors MOR’s first jazz-centered concert
Seattle • Benaroya Hall
March 15, 2026
SEATTLE, WA – February 18, 2026 – Music of Remembrance (MOR), nationally recognized for programming that confronts social injustice through music, presents Echoes of Conscience, a concert grounded in artistic resistance and moral urgency. On March 15 at Benaroya Hall, MOR brings together classical and jazz traditions shaped by artists who created under extraordinary political pressure. The evening features world premiere choreography by Donald Byrd, who uses movement to explore presence and collective experience. For the first time, MOR positions jazz as a core element of its musical storytelling, drawing on a tradition shaped by resilience and cultural defiance.
“Creative courage is not just political – it’s deeply moral,” said MOR Artistic Director Mina Miller. “This program came together in real time, shaped by the world we’re living in now. As artists ask hard questions about responsibility, silence, and action, this concert invites audiences to sit with those questions and consider how art emboldens response.”
In Echoes of Conscience, MOR examines 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. At the heart of the program is Darius Milhaud’s La création du monde. The score, which blended jazz and classical idioms, was a radical statement of cultural openness – a vision that stood in direct opposition to fascist ideology. New choreography by Donald Byrd places the work in contemporary motion, transforming Milhaud’s music into a multidisciplinary meditation on the dynamics of living alongside others.
“The dance invites audiences into a shared space shaped by rhythm, closeness, interruption and response,” said choreographer Donald Byrd. “Movement grows from attentive listening – to the music, to the presence of other bodies, and to the shifting energy of the room itself. The dancers are inhabiting a moment where ideas, impulses, and relationships are continually taking shape, breaking apart, and reforming.”
The concert also broadens MOR’s musical palette by placing jazz – historically associated with freedom and modernity – at the center of the program’s expressive language. Chanteuse Jacqueline Tabor offers a medley of songs popularized by Josephine Baker, the iconic Harlem Renaissance performer who became a heroic figure in France. Baker famously leveraged her celebrity to gather intelligence, using invisible ink on sheet music to divulge secrets she gleaned while performing in front of Nazis to French military officials.
Continuing this jazz-inflected thread, UW Jazz Saxophone Professor Michael Brockman performs the delightful Marmalade Sonata by French composer Manuel Rosenthal, who sustained an active musical life – even organizing concerts – as a prisoner of war after being captured by Nazi soldiers.
Together, these works position music and movement as acts of protest and witness – tools artists have long used to confront injustice, survive, and speak when silence itself becomes a choice. Echoes of Conscience invites audiences to consider what response the moment demands of them.
Echoes of Conscience
Sunday, March 15, 2026 @ 3:00pm
Serenade No. 2 by Bohuslav Martinů
Sonata for Two Clarinets by Francis Poulenc
with Tom Wang, clarinet (2025 David Tonkonogui Memorial Award Recipient)
Marmalade Sonata by Manuel Rosenthal
with Michael Brockman, saxophone
The Spirit of Josephine Baker
with Jacqueline Tabor, chanteuse; Michael Brockman, saxophone; Osama Afifi, double bass; John Hansen, piano
Art Songs of Protest by Paul Arma, Georges Auric, and Francis Poulenc
with Rosamund Dyer, mezzo-soprano
La création du monde by Darius Milhaud
featuring world premiere choreography by Donald Byrd
with Spectrum Dance Theater
MOR Chamber Ensemble: Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Elisa Barston, violin; Natasha Bazhanov, violin; Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola; Walter Gray, cello; Cristina Valdés, piano
Spectrum Dance Theater: Birdy Adler, Cody Krause, Cooper Sullivan, Katarina Lee, Natalie Johnson, Serene Wong, Isabella Smith
Benaroya Hall (200 University Street)
Seattle, Washington
Tickets $60; Students $25 (ID required)
https://musicofremembrance.org/show-details/echoes
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 examine compelling issues in today’s world. MOR’s online concerts, nine albums, three documentary films, and extensive outreach programs extend that impact well beyond the concert hall. 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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