Call for papers Leeds College of Music is pleased to announce its inaugural International Terezin Music Conference which will take place at the College on the 26th and 27th February 2012. It will also mark the official launch of the Terezin Music Hub. Part of the College’s Postgraduate Studies and Research Centre, the Hub will aim to provide a focal point in the UK for the study of music and musicians interred at the Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp during WW2, through creative practice, research and collaboration. Its brief will also encompass related disciplines, including music during the Holocaust in particular, and creativity in adversity in general.
The conference organizers are delighted and privileged to announce that the event will be opened by His Excellency the Ambassador to the Czech Republic, who has also agreed to be Honorary Patron of the Hub. The conference will commemorate the centenary of the birth of Eliska Kleinova (1912-1999), which falls on 27th February. She was the sister of the composer and pianist Gideon Klein, who played such a seminal role in Terezin’s cultural life. Professor Kleinova, herself a Terezin prisoner and Auschwitz survivor, became a greatly respected Prague-based music pedagogue.
A concert on the centenary day will include Klein’s Piano Sonata, written in Terezin, and dedicated to his sister. The conference will be honored by having Michael Beckerman and Murry Sidlin as distinguished keynote speakers. Maestro Sidlin will be conducting a performance of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony in the days following the conference.The main focus of the conference will be on musical performance and composition in Terezin.
Papers, all of which will be presented orally, are invited on these specific aspects. Topics covering other areas of musical performance and composition during the Holocaust will also be considered. Papers should be no more than 20 minutes duration, and the usual audio/visual conference resources, plus piano and internet access, will be available in the main auditorium where papers are to be presented. There will not be any poster sessions. Abstracts of c.350 words, plus a brief biography, should be sent by e-mail to terezinmusic@lcm.ac.uk by Friday 16th September, to where informal inquiries can also be made. Decisions will be made by the end of that month.
The conference’s co-ordinator, Dr. David Fligg, will be at the AMS Annual Conference in San Francisco in November, should any potential transatlantic delegates wish to discuss matters in person. He can also be contacted at the e-mail address above. The conference website, with draft programme and booking details, will be available later this summer. In the meantime, to receive updates, send an email with ‘Conference updates’ in the subject line to the e-mail address above, and keep checking the College website at www.lcm.ac.uk .