Music of Remembrance Appoints Inaugural Executive Director
Music of Remembrance Executive Director Lorri Staal // Photo by Sam Oyer
Music of Remembrance Appoints Inaugural
Executive Director Lorri Staal
SEATTLE, WA – March 5, 2024 – Following an extensive national search, the board of Seattle-based Music of Remembrance (MOR) has announced legal professional and longtime human rights advocate Lorri Staal as the performing arts organization’s inaugural Executive Director. Widely acclaimed for its commitment to developing new works, MOR has commissioned more than 45 premieres using music, dance, and visual arts to confront compelling issues in today’s world. Beginning February 26, 2024, Staal joins MOR President and Founding Artistic Director Mina Miller to steer the organization’s next stage of evolution.
In recent years MOR has expanded programming opportunities, amplified its messaging and visibility, and diversified its philanthropic base. Recognizing that both artistic and administrative roles have increased in scope and complexity as the organization has evolved, Miller and the Board designed the Executive Director role to ensure MOR’s long-term sustainability.
Staal joins MOR from JND Legal Administration, where she served as Vice President of Operations following her role as Vice President of Client Services at EPIQ, a global provider of legal administration services, and her successful career as a corporate litigator with global law firms. Alongside her legal career, Staal has engaged in deeply meaningful volunteer work with several organizations that align with MOR’s mission. Among these, she has served as pro bono in-house counsel to the Seattle Symphony and co-founded anti-bias organization Shamor in Long Island, which worked with school districts to develop effective response protocols to discrimination, organized community events with elected officials and NGOs, and built coalitions among at-risk communities to raise awareness and encourage mutual support.
“I believe music is a cross-cultural unifying force, and I am honored to join MOR during this pivotal moment,” said newly appointed Executive Director Lorri Staal. “As a lifelong student of classical and contemporary world music who is also devoted to social impact, I have been consistently inspired by MOR’s work to honor the legacies of persecuted communities through diverse artistic expressions. While MOR brilliantly raises awareness of suffering through music and art, it also instills hope for a brighter future. This vision holds greater significance in today’s world than ever before, and I’m deeply gratified to shift my professional focus to this mission-driven work.”
Music of Remembrance has built a reputation as the creative catalyst for testimonies for tomorrow – persuasive works that explore the consequences of intolerance toward the other. Recent premieres have included works addressing the separation of families at the US-Mexico border, the worldwide refugee crisis, and the threat of nuclear war. This season, MOR spotlights the lived experiences and creative traditions of Indigenous artists, delivers a powerful musical statement about the current women’s rights struggle in Iran, and traces the reverberating effects of cultural vandalism in a three-city tour of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s new opera Before It All Goes Dark.
“As we position ourselves for the future,” said MOR Artist Director Mina Miller, “we’re thrilled to have found Lorri Staal. Her passion for our mission and music, her years of work advancing human rights and social justice, and her gift for engaging with diverse communities will help us forge new paths ahead. I look forward to collaborating with her to build on our record of accomplishments and lead the way in an ever-changing world.”
“We are beyond thrilled to welcome Lorri Staal to the MOR family,” agreed Board Chair David Epstein. “Her extraordinary professional background, coupled with her heartfelt commitment to our mission, provides Music of Remembrance with an energetic and focused strategic leader who will seamlessly complement our visionary Artistic Director Mina Miller. This powerful team will position MOR to build on its legacy of artistic excellence for years to come.”
UPCOMING EVENTS
Phoenix
Sunday, March 10, 2024 at 5:30 pm
Benaroya Hall (200 University Street)
Seattle, Washington
Tickets $60
musicofremembrance.org/phoenix
Elegy: A Cry from the Grave
Composer: Carlos Simon
Phoenix
World Premiere & MOR commission
Composer: Sahba Aminikia
Librettist: Zara Houshmand
featuring sopranos Vanessa Isiguen and Madeline Ross; mezzo-soprano Rachel Hauge
In Sleep The World Is Yours
New arrangement of MOR commission
Composer: Lori Laitman
featuring soprano Vanessa Isiguen
“Zeks Yiddishe Lider un Tantz” from The Golem
World Premiere of MOR dance commission
Composer: Betty Olivero
Choreographer: Donald Byrd
with Spectrum Dance Theater
MOR Chamber Ensemble: Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Artur Girsky, violin; Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola; Walter Gray, cello; Joseph Kaufman, double bass; Mina Miller, piano
Before It All Goes Dark
World Premiere Opera
Composer: Jake Heggie, composer
Librettist: Gene Scheer
based on reporting by Howard Reich for the Chicago Tribune
Conductor: Joseph Mechavich
Director: Erich Parce
Mac: Ryan McKinny
Sally/Misha/Emil: Megan Marino
MOR Chamber Ensemble: Demarre McGill, flute; Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola; Eric Han, cello; Jonathan Green, double bass; Jessica Choe, piano
Sunday, May 19, 2024 @ 4:30pm
Seattle, Washington
Benaroya Hall (200 University Street)
Tickets $60; Students $25 (ID required)
musicofremembrance.org/dark
Wednesday, May 22, 2024 @ 7:30pm
San Francisco, California
Presidio Theatre (99 Moraga Avenue)
Tickets $40-75
musicofremembrance.org/darksf
Saturday, May 25, 2024 @ 7:30pm
Sunday, May 26, 2024 @ 3pm
Chicago, Illinois
Studebaker Theater (410 South Michigan Avenue)
Tickets $40-75
cot.org/season/darkAbout Music of Remembrance
About Music of Remembrance
Established in 1998, Music of Remembrance (MOR) has made a unique impact through works that honor the resilience of all people excluded or persecuted for faith, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality. Its programs pay tribute to historic memory, and directly confront 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 and premiering new works by leading composers, including varied chamber ensembles, song cycles, choral works, dance music, film scores, musical dramas, and full-length operas. 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.
About Lorri Staal
After a two-decade career as a lawyer in corporate New York law firms, Lorri Staal served as an executive leader in the legal claims administration industry, overseeing strategic corporate planning and all facets of administering complex court-ordered settlements. Simultaneously, she was a longtime contributor to the nonprofit sector, including cofounding a volunteer organization addressing discrimination in local schools and building bridges with targeted communities. She was selected as an inaugural member of the Unified Long Island Task Force, formed by county chief executives to empower communities to fight discrimination. Although a New Yorker by birth and in spirit, she moved to Seattle in 2020 and pivoted her career to focus fully on mission-driven work. She served as pro bono Counsel for the Seattle Symphony and is a member of the Seattle Board of the American Jewish Committee and the Task Force implementing the White House’s Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.
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