“The Tragedy of Transcendence: On the Meaning of the Arts of the Holocaust” presented by Philip Bohlman and sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies will take place April 19, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. at Beth El Synagogue.
"The Tragedy of Transcendence: On the Meaning of the Arts of the Holocaust"
*5th Annual Community Lecture Series *
THE CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
The Tragedy of Transcendence: On the Meaning of the Arts of the Holocaust*
Philip Bohlman*
April 19, 2009 7:00 p.m.
Beth El Synagogue
5224 West 26^th St
St. Louis Park, MN
952-920-3512
The very existence of artistic creation during the Holocaust is often taken as a sign of the power of the arts to effect spiritual resistance, survival, and transcendence in the face of tragedy. Reflecting upon the arts, literature, and music of the Holocaust, Philip Bohlman asks whether we actually fail to perceive meaning in Judaism and Jewish thought, by privileging transcendence over tragedy in the Jewish arts of modernity. By sounding the silence of music for the stage and of literature that gave voice to the unsung in the concentration camps at Buchenwald, Mauthausen, and Terezín, the lecture charts alternative routes to confronting the deeper meaning of tragedy in Jewish history.
*Philip V. Bohlman *is the Mary Werkman Distinguished Service Professor of the Humanities and Music at the University of Chicago, where he has also served as Chair of Jewish Studies. A pianist, he is the Artistic Director of the University of Chicago ensemble-in-residence, the New Budapest Orpheum Society. Among his many publications are /The Land Where Two Streams Flow:/ /Music in the German-Jewish Community of Israel /(1989), /The World Centre for Jewish Music in Palestine 1936-1940 /(1992), /World/ /Music: A Very Short Introduction /(2002), /Jüdische Volksmusik: Eine mitteleuropäische Geistesgeschichte /(2005), /Jewish Musical/ /Modernism, Old and New /(2008), and /Jewish Music and Modernity /(2008). He and the New Budapest Orpheum Society record for Cedille Records, which released /”So Their Voices Will Not Fall Silent”: Jewish Music Exile /in early 2009. A winner of the Edward Dent Medal of the Royal Music Association and the Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin, Philip Bohlman is a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, which awarded him the Derek Allen Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Musicology in 2007 for /The Music of European Nationalism /(2004, 2nd ed. 2009).
SPECIAL ENTERTAINMENT: *With Christine Wilkie Bohlman, Philip Bohlman will perform a work for
stage by Jewish artists in the Terezia concentration camp, Members of the MN Cantor’s Association will also
participate.
This Event is Free & Open to the Public
Lecture Series made possible by ROBERT AND JANET SABES, SABES FAMILY FOUNDATION
Sponsoring Partners: Beth El Synagogue, **Jewish Community Relations of Minnesota & the Dakotas, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, U of M School of Music*
