ORATORIO TEREZIN

World Premiere - Toronto, November 2003

European Premiere Tour - Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic   March 2004

Israel Premiere - Tel Aviv, Jerusalem,  Karmiel -2005

Toronto - November 2006

United States Premiere- Carnegie Hall, New York and Long Island   - 2007

Composed by Ruth Fazal, Oratorio Terezin is a full length work scored for orchestra, children’s choir, adult choir, and three vocal soloists. Set in the context of the Holocaust, using children’s poetry which miraculously survived from the ghetto of Terezin, woven together with passages from the Hebrew scriptures.

Over 15, 000 children passed through Terezin, of whom only one hundred survived. The poignant innocence of their poetry, set against the cry of ‘How long will the wicked exult?’ causes us to come face to face with the testing of faith, in the context of unspeakable human suffering and deprivation.

The musical style is both dramatically intense, and sweetly lyrical. The juxtaposition of the children’s and adult’s  voices, along with those of the Voice of the Prophet, the Voice of God and the Voice of Suffering create the tension found in the midst of feelings of rejection and abandonment alongside the hope deep within the human heart that all will be well.

The World Premiere performance of Oratorio Terezin in Toronto in November 2003 was recorded live by Tributary Music on two CDs.

For more information, please visit www.oratorioterezin.com           VIDEO CLIP