The Summer Singers of Lee’s Summit presented performances of music commemorating the Holocaust on July 30 and 31.
The concerts were held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, and supported by the William Baker Choral Foundation, Lee’s Summit Cultural Arts and the Louis and Frances Swinken Supporting Foundation of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City.
Opening the concerts was "Kaddish for the Six Million," a piece composed by Atlanta-based conductor and musicologist Amy Thropp. The central work was "Holocaust Cantata" by Donald McCullough, a work that has been performed across the country since it premiered in March of 1998. The programs concluded with Kim Andre Arnesen’s "Even When He Is Silent."
Thropp, retired music director for Congregation Beth Shalom in Dunwoody, Georgia, and director of the Choral Foundation’s Zimria Festivale Atlanta ensemble, was in attendance for the performance of her "Kaddish for the Six Million." The performance was directed by Summer Singers of Lee’s Summit Music Director Jennifer Lahasky.
The event was narrated by Father Timothy Coppinger, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church; Rabbi Larry and Rhonda Karol of Overland Park, Kansas; and Rabbi Mark Levin, founding rabbi of Congregation Beth Torah. Dr. Shelly Cline, director of education and historian at the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, introduced each performance.
An art exhibition created by students from the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy accompanied the event.
