Music of Remembrance (MOR) is a non-profit organization founded in 1998 by artistic director Mina Miller to remember the Holocaust through music. With concert performances, educational programs, recordings, and commissions of new works by some of today’s leading composers, MOR honours those of all backgrounds who found the strength to create even in the face of suffering, and those who had the courage to speak out against cruelty. Their stories communicate urgent lessons for today, and look beyond the Holocaust itself to the experience of others who have been excluded or persecuted for their faith, ethnicity, gender or sexuality. Along with its large and varied repertoire of Holocaust-era music, MOR commissions and premieres new works by some of today’s leading composers, building bridges across generations and sharing stories that underline the Holocaust’s urgent relevance for us now.

The Parting (Naxos 8.669044) is among the more than 30 new works that MOR has commissioned in its first two decades, including chamber music, song, oratorio, opera, ballet and film score. MOR’s mission is not religious, nor is its scope limited to Jewish music or experience. Its commissions have also focused on the Holocaust’s impact on homosexuals, women, children, Roma, political prisoners and courageous freethinkers.

For more information, visit www.musicofremembrance.org.

Described by Fanfare magazine as “one of the most talented and intriguing of living composers,” Lori Laitman has composed multiple operas and choral works, and hundreds of songs, setting texts by classical and contemporary poets (including those who perished in the Holocaust). Her music has generated substantial critical acclaim. The Journal of Singing wrote: “It is difficult to think of anyone before the public today who equals her exceptional gifts for embracing a poetic text and giving it new and deeper life through music.”

Laitman’s opera The Scarlet Letter, with a libretto by David Mason, was released on Naxos (8.669034–35) and named a Critic’s Choice by Opera News and one of the top five albums of 2018 by Fanfare magazine. The Three Feathers, Laitman’s fairy-tale opera with librettist Dana Gioia, premiered in 2014 and has since been heard throughout the US and in Singapore. Uncovered, her opera based on Leah Lax’s memoir, will premiere in April 2021 at Utah State University.

Laitman has received many prestigious commissions, including from the BBC and the Royal Philharmonic Society, OPERA America, Opera Colorado, Seattle Opera, Grant Park Music Festival, Music of Remembrance and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. A magna cum laude Yale College graduate, she received her Master of Music from Yale School of Music, which awarded her the Ian Mininberg Alumni Award for Distinguished Service in May 2018.

For more information, please visit www.artsongs.com.