Organized by the Dante Alighieri Society of Michigan and the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago, under the auspices of the Consulate of Italy in Detroit, with the support of the Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies
Musica Degenerata
With Davide Casali, clarinet and Elisa Frausin, piano
To mark Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, every year the Dante Alighieri Society (DAS) of Michigan organizes activities commemorating those Italians who suffered persecution under the Nazi occupation during World War II and as a result of the Racial Laws imposed by the Fascist government.
Music played an integral role in daily life even under Nazism. Therefore, for the 2018 Holocaust Remembrance Day, DAS has invited Davide Casali, clarinetist, conductor and artistic director of the Viktor Ullmann Festival, and Elisa Frausin, pianist and first cello of the stable orchestra of the Ullmann Festival, to perform music by composers deported to concentration camps and Nazi ghettos, and play Degenerate Music, that is, music considered decadent and harmful by the Nazi government. The aim of the duo is to revive the musical repertoire of Italian Jewish composers such as Leo Sinigaglia, Renzo Massarani, and Alberto Gentili, unfortunate authors who were forced to suffer the Third Reich physical and cultural annihilation.
L’Associazione Musica Libera realizza da due anni il “Festival Viktor Ullmann” dedicato alla Musica Concentrazionaria (la musica composta dai deportati nei campi di concentramento e nei ghetti nazisti) e alla Musica Degenerata (la musica che il governo nazista considerava decadente e dannosa).
Il duo è composto da Davide Casali clarinettista, direttore d’orchestra e direttore artistico del Festival “Viktor Ullmann”, e da Elisa Frausin, pianista e primo violoncello dell’orchestra Abimà, orchestra stabile del Festival “Viktor Ullmann”.
