As a professor of music and a concert pianist, Dr. Deborah Nemko has a special interest in the connections between art and social justice.
That passion will be on display at a concert, “Music in the Time of Anne Frank” that Dr. Nemko will perform on Wednesday, April 20 at 1:50 p.m. in the Horace Mann Auditorium inside Boyden Hall.
The concert features music by now forgotten Dutch-Jewish composers, some of whom were murdered by the Nazis during World War II. In addition, a work choreographed and performed by Jennifer Sarver, an assistant professor of dance – featuring BSU dance students Derek Talor and Darah Nunes– brings to life visually the story of Anne Frank.
The event, co-sponsored by the Office of Institutional Diversity and the Music Department, is also meant to honor Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Memorial Day.
“This is a moment to rediscover this important music,” Dr. Nemko said, speaking of an effort she hopes can both highlight the importance of preventing future genocides and “celebrate the legacy of people who had a lot to offer society and weren’t given the chance.”
The concert builds on work Dr. Nemko began as a Fulbright scholar in The Netherlands last spring, when in addition to teaching at Utrecht Conservatory she explored music manuscripts in the National Institute of Music in The Hague from Dutch composers, many still unpublished 70 years after the war.
During her fellowship and since, Dr. Nemko has been performing concerts featuring some of those lost works, most recently during a return trip to The Netherlands over spring break.
“I feel drawn to the topic for a lot of reasons," she said, noting that she had a mentor as an undergraduate who was a Dutch survivor of the Holocaust.
More importantly, Dr. Nemko hopes to spur people to reflect on the connection between the intolerance that many are exhibiting today toward Syrian refugees and the similar hostility shown to refugees fleeing the Nazis in World War II.
“I think the message is really timely,” she said.