2015-16 Season Annual Report ®

Mina Miller Mission President & Artistic Director Founded in 1998 by pianist Mina Miller, Music of Remembrance (MOR) fills a unique role throughout the world by remembering through music with concert performances, educational programs, recordings and commissions of new works. Along with 2015-16 its large and varied repertoire of Holocaust-era music, MOR commissions and premieres Board of Directors new Holocaust-inspired works by some of today’s leading composers, building bridges across David Epstein Chair generations and sharing stories that underline the Holocaust’s urgent moral relevance for us Nickolas Newcombe now. Vice Chair Pamela Center Secretary While MOR has a special place in the Jewish community, its mission is not religious and Thea Fefer Treasurer its scope is not limited to Jewish music or experience. Our programs have also focused on Henry Butler the Holocaust’s impact on homosexuals, women, children, Roma, political prisoners and Carole Ellison courageous free-thinkers. Toni Freeman Alice Greenwood Musicians’ resistance took many forms, and crossed many national and religious boundaries. Russell Lebert This resistance cannot have been in vain. We remember these musicians by preserving and Earl Sedlik performing their music. Sandra Spear Leo Sreebny Kyoko Taguchi A Letter from the Chair of the Board Petra Walker Gregory Wallace “Potentia Tenebras Repellendi” – the power to repel the darkness. For more than Frederick Yudin three years this Latin phrase was front and center in my thoughts, for it was the motto of the Stanley Zeitz submarine on which I served as a young naval officer, a motto engraved on David Sabritt our ship’s logo, a phrase I saw every day. Little could I have known some forty Executive Advisor years ago how these words would eventually help guide me as the MOR board Advisory Board chair in carrying out our mission, and how they complemented our stellar Leon Botstein 18th season and the landmark MOR Seattle and San Francisco premieres of Samuel Brylawski and Gene Scheer’s extraordinary Out of Darkness. John Corigliano Bob Goldfarb As we follow the news today and are reminded of familiar, ominous David Epstein Richard Goode undercurrents both at home and abroad, I would argue that the arts in Speight Jenkins general, and Music of Remembrance in particular, take on a role even more powerful than Gary Karr Thomas Pasatieri that submarine. Rather than simply having the power to repel darkness, MOR – with your Murray Perahia continued support – first shines a light on injustice and exposes it for what it is, and then, through music, pivots and radiates as a beacon of hope for the future. We reject injustice – Paul Schoenfield Gerard Schwarz past and present — in all forms, we rejoice through our inspirational, uplifting performances, David Shifrin and most importantly, we remember. We remember. David Stock* Bret Werb I thank you again for the trust you have placed in us to ensure the voices of musical witness be Pinchas Zukerman heard, and am honored by your ongoing interest, and look forward – yes, forward – to seeing you at an upcoming performance of MOR, an organization vital for our times. *in blessed memory (1939-2015) David Epstein 2016-17 Board Chair

2 MOR 2015-16 Season Annual Report A Letter from the President and Artistic Director

When the witnesses disappear and only witnesses to those first-generation witnesses can speak, art’s role is to create a humanizing space. While art evokes memory, it invents a memory for the future. – Bracha L. Ettinger, The New York Times (December 2016) When I take a step back and reflect on MOR’s programs for its eighteenth season, I’m reminded of the distance we’ve traveled over those years. We’ve remained consistently true to our founding mission of remembering Holocaust-era musicians by performing their works, but over the last decade and a half the world has changed and we have evolved with it. Many of the banned composers whose works we’ve featured from the beginning have become more broadly known, and we’d like to think that we’ve played a small part in rescuing beautiful music and important stories from undeserved obscurity. But we do much more than bring back musical voices from the past. MOR is the only organization in the world with a commitment to commissioning new Holocaust-inspired works by some of today’s leading composers (and lyricists and choreographers!). We try to share stories that teach important lessons and challenge us to question our thinking. Appropriately, we remember the courage of musicians and others who used their art to speak out against injustice that they saw and experienced. At Music of Remembrance, we feel a calling to honor their examples by responding to events that challenge human rights and dignity in our own world. In MOR’s recent season we brought forth two more new works. For our November 2015 concert, the provocative choreographer Olivier Wevers breathed exciting new life Mina Miller into the jazzy ballet suite La Revue de Cuisine by Bohuslav Martinu˚ , a Czech-born composer forced to flee Europe after the German invasion of France because of his active role there in the Czech underground. May 2016 saw the world premiere of our newest opera commission, Out of Darkness by the acclaimed team of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, in Seattle and San Francisco. With its haunting portrait of the experience of homosexuals during Nazi rule and its aftermath, and its intimate depiction of the emotional costs of survival, Out of Darkness reminds us why the Holocaust’s lessons remain as important today as ever. Looking ahead to 2017, our audiences in Seattle and San Francisco will experience our newest commission, a multi-media work by rising young American composer Mary Kouyoumdjian about the fate of Europe’s Roma during the Holocaust. And the following year will bring two more new works, this time focusing on the wartime internment of people of Japanese ancestry. Our programs always combine new works like these with the music of composers whose lives were touched directly by the Holocaust: those who perished; those forced into exile; those whose music was banned and whose lives the Nazis sought to erase; those who stood up to evil through their art. We do all of this because it matters so deeply. Our performances, and the new works that we commission, don’t simply remember and honor the past. They address questions for today, in a world where human rights demand our vigilance more than ever. Through music, we try to make a difference in the world.

Mina Miller Artistic Director

MOR 2015-16 Season Annual Report 3 A REPORT ON MOR’S 2015-16 SEASON Since its 1998-99 inaugural year, MOR has presented two major concerts annually at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall: a fall concert marking the anniversary of (The Night of Broken Glass) and a spring concert honoring Holocaust Remembrance Day. Beginning in 2015, we introduced an annual appearance in San Francisco. Our expanded programming in two cities gives us the flexibility to offer varied events — staged operas and musical dramas, new creations, chamber and vocal

Rikki Ward photo Rikki Ward music — without compromising our ability to continue exploring a core repertoire that fuses known works with new discoveries. Everyone touched by the Holocaust had a November 8, 2015: (Benaroya Hall): La Revue de Cuisine story, a name: those Music of Remembrance launched its 18th season with a concert showcasing dance-inspired who perished and music by three composers. Our November program featured Bohuslav Martinu˚ ’s 1927 jazzy those who survived; ballet La Revue de Cuisine, our first collaboration with the innovative choreographer Olivier famous people Wevers and his provocative Whim W’Him Seattle Contemporary Dance. With dazzling and people little- wit, Wevers’ dances depicted the amorous known who were entanglements of four kitchen utensils brought just as important. to life. Would the orderly Broom help the All of them had dreams, stories to jealous Lid regain the love of the Pot, who had tell, and unanswered succumbed to the temptations of the seductive questions that still Whisk? The music captured the exuberance of need to be asked. 1920s Paris that made it so alluring to artists Through music, we and intellectuals from everywhere. But with the try to remind the German invasion of France in 1940, Martinu˚ was world that their lives forced to flee because of his associations with the

still matter. Czech underground. Concert photography: Michael Beaton – Mina Miller Franz Schreker was one of Nazism’s earliest musical casualties, forced to resign as director of the Berlin Hochschule für Musik in 1932 when he resisted demands to carry out discriminatory policies against Jewish faculty members. His early chamber work The Wind was inspired by a poem by ballerina Grete Wiesenthal for her own now-lost dance score. We also performed Dutch composer Dick Kattenburg’s innocently unpretentious Deux Valses à la Ravel for piano four hands. Kattenburg experienced the early war years in hiding in Amsterdam, followed by deportation to Westerbork and then Auschwitz, where he was murdered on arrival. He perished at age 24 without hearing these pieces or most of his other music performed, and it’s only through a remarkable chain of coincidence that the scores were recovered years later. The program also included a selection of songs in Yiddish from the . Vilna’s Jews held out in proud struggle to defend a unique heritage, and within the ghetto’s walls poetry and music took on special importance. These songs embody the courageous resilience of those who bared their souls through music, and bring us on an inspiring journey that Left to right: Mikhail Shmidt, Leonid Keylin, Julia Benzinger, Jonathan Green, Mara Finkelstein and spans heartbreak, hope, defiance and even Susan Gulkis Assadi humor.

4 MOR 2015-16 Season Annual Report We also introduced our audience to the powerful and poetic music of Mieczyslaw Weinberg with his Capriccio and Aria, two early string quartet miniatures from 1942-43. Weinberg bears the unfortunate distinction of persecution at both Nazi and Soviet hands. With the German invasion of his native Poland, the young Weinberg fled eastward with the hope of finding safety in the Soviet Union, only to face mistreatment there as well. Weinberg was touched by tragedy and loss in both his life and his art. His parents and sister stayed behind in Poland and perished in a Nazi concentration camp. After some early successes in the Soviet Union, his music was denounced for “Jewish bourgeois nationalism,” and he was imprisoned on the fantastical charge of plotting a Jewish coup in Crimea. For years afterward his music was marginalized, but still Weinberg continued to compose prolifically. In the years since Weinberg’s death his music has begun to receive the appreciation it deserves.

May 22, May 25 and 26, 2016: Out of Darkness The world premiere of Out of Darkness, Thank you so much the bold new opera that we commissioned for having the from composer Jake Heggie and librettist courage to do works Gene Scheer, was a landmark occasion. like this that keep the Following our Seattle performance at memories of these Benaroya Hall, we returned to San Francisco people alive – for with two performances at the Caroline H. bringing these stories Hume Concert Hall at the San Francisco out of the darkness Conservatory of Music. and into the light. Out of Darkness is a powerful portrait of survival – Michael Mayes that probes the Holocaust’s vast scope through Left to right: Robert Orth and Michael Mayes emotionally rich depictions of those caught Cory Weaver Photography in its grasp. The first act, “Krystyna,” tells the true story of Krystyna Zywulska, whose daring poems became anthems of defiance among her fellow prisoners in Auschwitz. Act Two, “Gad,” explores the fate of homosexuals during the Holocaust through the experience of Gad Beck and Manfred Lewin, two idealistic young lovers in 1930s Berlin whose lives and love were torn apart under Nazi rule. The music, of heart-stopping beauty, conveys a wisdom that helps us to appreciate those touched by the Holocaust in all their complicated humanity. It tells their stories with deep compassion that never descends to pathos or sentimentality. The production featured a stellar cast. Soprano Caitlin The cast is one that Lynch, applauded by the New York Times as “luminous,” any opera house, appeared as the mature Krystyna, joined by soprano Ava from Seattle and San Pine, who portrayed Krystyna in flashbacks to her youth. Francisco to New Catherine Cook, who has performed more than 50 York's Met, would roles with San Francisco Opera, sang the role of Zosha, hunger for. The Krystyna’s friend and fellow prisoner in Auschwitz. performance was a Veteran baritone Robert Orth, for whom Heggie triumph, not just of created roles in Dead Man Walking and Moby Dick, portrayed dedication and will, Gad. Baritone Michael Mayes portrayed Manfred and but also of artistic mesmerized our audiences with his powerful voice and coherence. arresting stage presence. The imaginative production – Jason Victor Serinus, was directed by Erich Parce and conducted by Joseph Bay Area Reporter Baritone Michael Mayes Mechavich.

MOR 2015-16 Season Annual Report 5 Out of Darkness is a remarkable achievement by Heggie and Scheer, and we spared no effort in giving the performances the impact they deserved. In addition to its world-class cast, the production used set and lighting designs that swept audiences into the heart of the musical drama, and visual projections that captured the shifting and porous boundaries between memory and imagination. We also produced a professional- quality video recording of the performance, along with behind-the-scenes chapters, that is now available in Blu-Ray and DVD formats. Cory Weaver Photography Cory Weaver

Left to right: Michael Mayes, Catherine Cook, Robert Orth, Caitlin Lynch and Ava Pine

This concert was one Commemorating the 71st Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz of the most moving On January 27, 1945, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp, was liberated by musical events I the Soviet army. Seventy-one years later, on Wednesday evening, January 27, 2016, Music of have ever attended. Remembrance presented a community-wide free concert at Seattle’s Thank you so much Benaroya Hall to honor this important moment in history. The musical for this incredible program featured works by composers whose lives were cut short by Nazi experience. persecution: Gideon Klein, Zikmund Schul, Robert Dauber, Erwin – Audience member Schulhoff, David Beigelman and Dick Kattenburg. It also included cabaret music from the Terezín concentration camp and a selection of songs from the Vilna ghetto. With this concert, Music of Remembrance joined organizations around the world in commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Jack and Adina Almo Day. Made possible through the generous sponsorship of Jack and Adina Almo, this free concert provided an opportunity for the entire community to come together to honor the liberation of Auschwitz, and to experience a small part of the musical legacy left by those who continued to create remarkable music even while in the hands of their Nazi captors. The moving introductory remarks of Jack and Adina Almo set the tone for a deeply inspiring evening.

There is no other Education & Outreach: Serving our Communities organization in MOR’s constant challenge is to help people explore both personal and universal meanings of the America today Holocaust, and reflect on the meaning of the Holocaust’s lessons in today’s world. Not everybody can that has the same come to the concert hall, however, and our outreach program is designed to bring MOR’s music and convictions for this mission to people of all ages and backgrounds across our community and beyond. cause as Music of Remembrance. Sparks of Glory: Our Eleventh Season of Free – City Arts Performances Beyond the Concert Hall The Sparks of Glory education outreach series continues to be an important element of MOR’s service to the community. Originally supported in part with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, for the past two seasons we have relied on the generosity of individual donors to present free concerts in partnership with the Seattle Art Museum.

6 MOR 2015-16 Season Annual Report These concerts at SAM are always linked with the museum’s current Great music exhibits. MOR’s September 2015 concert complemented SAM’s performed by exhibit “Intimate from the National Gallery of outstanding Art.” MOR’s Mina Miller discussed several of the 71 extraordinary musicians! These paintings in that collection and their counterparts in musical Sparks of Glory impressionism. Echoes of Debussy and Ravel permeated the concerts are a gift to hauntingly evocative music of Rosy Wertheim and Henriette Seattle. I hope they Bosmans, two Dutch composers who lived and worked in Paris can continue next between the world wars. The program’s art museum setting was also year. ideal for sharing the story and music of After Life – and its encounter – Audience Member between the ghosts of and – with a wider audience that might have missed our premiere of the Tom Cipullo opera at Benaroya Hall that May.

In the Schools and Community Through MOR’s Sparks of Glory program, we also reach out to students and educators, and to other partners across the community. During the months leading to our premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s Out of Darkness, an important emphasis of this outreach was to introduce the work and promote discussion of the profound questions it addresses. In the Bay Area, this included a presentation at San Francisco’s Temple Emanu- El, and a concert preview hosted by the Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany Left to right: Israel in partnership with the Consulate of Israel and the American Jewish Committee. That Consul General Andy event drew a broad audience from the diplomatic community and the general public, and it David, AJC – SF Executive Director featured musical highlights with vocal stars accompanied by the composer. Sarah Persitz, David Sabritt, Mina Miller Our free concerts, school and community presentations in 2015-16 were attended by and Jake Heggie nearly 1,200 people. But this number alone does not tell the entire story. We try to involve community members – and especially young people – in other ways as well. We offer steeply discounted concert tickets to students, and open the doors for dress rehearsals. Our continuing Seattle Art Museum partnership and our other outreach programs reach a diverse The way Music community. They open dialogues, and begin important conversations that continue beyond of Remembrance the school, auditorium or lecture hall. touches the memory of the Holocaust Testimonies for Tomorrow Commissions and Recordings is not through bitterness or The commissioning of new music forms a cornerstone of MOR’s mission. Through significant new vengeance, but by Holocaust-inspired works by major composers, MOR’s commissioning program builds a bridge conveying positive between Holocaust musicians and a new generation of artists and audiences. experiences. Music of Remembrance’s “Testimonies for Tomorrow” program of commissioning – Andy David, Consul new Holocaust-inspired works by today’s leading composers is unique in the world. With General of Israel to the these works we move beyond historical memory by focusing on the continued relevance of Pacific Northwest the Holocaust’s moral lessons for today. Entering its nineteenth season, MOR has already commissioned over 20 works by composers including Paul Schoenfield, Thomas Pasatieri, Jake Heggie, Lori Laitman, Betty Olivero, Gerard Schwarz and David Stock, among others. In our recent season we unveiled two more new works: a brilliant dance creation, and a full-length opera that has already begun to enter the repertoire in companies around the world. Our November concert featured Olivier Wevers’ choreography for Bohuslav Martinu˚’s jazzy 1927 ballet La Revue de Cuisine. With exuberant wit, Wevers’ new dances depict the amorous entanglements of kitchen utensils brought to life. The whimsical plot is a love

MOR 2015-16 Season Annual Report 7

triangle between newlyweds Pot and Lid, and the Stirring Stick who is determined to come between them. Wevers gives each utensil an expressive personality of its own, with dances where the orderly Broom helps the jealous Lid regain the love of the Pot, who has succumbed to the temptations of the seductive Stirring Stick. The dances are tender and wickedly funny at the same time, with gender roles that are juggled at unexpected moments. This was our first collaboration with Wevers and his talented performers at Whim W’Him Seattle Contemporary Dance, and we look forward to working with them again when they return in 2017 to premiere the first-ever dance to a very different type of work: Osvaldo Golijov’s Lullaby and Doina, depicting Thank you, Music of the doomed young love of a Jewish woman and a gypsy man. Remembrance, for Commissioning a new opera and introducing it to the world is an exciting adventure, and it’s creating a radiant also a special challenge for a small organization like Music of Remembrance. But opera offers space for us to a uniquely compelling vehicle for reaching people’s hearts in a visceral way with stories that remember, share, the world needs to hear. Out of Darkness is the culmination of MOR’s collaboration with Heggie laugh, cry, celebrate and Scheer that began a decade ago. Their first MOR commission, For a Look or a Touch (2007), and dream together. explored the fate of homosexuals during the Holocaust through the experience of Gad Beck – Jake Heggie and Manfred Lewin, two idealistic young lovers in 1930s Berlin whose lives and love were torn apart under Nazi rule. Another Sunrise (2012) and Farewell, Auschwitz (2013) shared the story and Working on these words of Krystyna Zywulska, whose daring poems became anthems of defiance among her pieces has been one fellow prisoners in Auschwitz. In the two acts of Out of Darkness and an unforgettable epilogue, of the highlights of my Heggie and Scheer bring these stories together in a powerful testament to memory and the life. emotional costs of survival. –Gene Scheer Recordings When we take the lead in commissioning and premiering these new works, it’s always with the hope that they will be absorbed into a repertoire that reaches people everywhere. Our CD recordings play an important part by making our commissions permanently available to listeners around the world. In February 2016, Naxos released our recording of Tom Cipullo’s A most stimulating chamber opera After Life, which we premiered the previous year. In this one- release. The two act opera, the ghosts of Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso confront each pieces are excellently matched. Both other about how artists can respond to evil they see in the world. At the exude a sense of time of this report, the work is one of three finalists for the Best Chamber Opera award of the questioning what was National Opera Association. and what might have This CD, our seventh recording on the Naxos label, also includes Lori Laitman’s song cycle been. Performances In Sleep The World Is Yours, an MOR commission from 2014. This haunting song cycle is based on and recording are of the poignant poetry of Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger. Selma died at 18 in a Nazi labor camp, but the highest standard. her poetry remains as witness to her talent, her sensitivity and her commitment to deeply-held – Fanfare July 2016 principles. The recording has already received critical praise in international publications such as Gramophone, Opera News and Fanfare Magazine. Dmitriy Lipay, the audio engineer for this CD and our other recent recordings, has been a frequent Grammy Award recipient. We also captured this year’s Out of Darkness production in a professional-quality opera video. The recording, now available in Blu-Ray and DVD formats, also includes a bonus chapter with interviews and behind-the-scenes glimpses of how the work was conceived and brought to life. Anyone who has created an opera film can attest to the demands of artistic subtlety and technical complexity. Our team of audio engineer Dmitriy Lipay, media designer and videographer David Murakami, and post-production engineer Andrew Mayatskiy succeeded magnificently in communicating the intensity of Out of Darkness’s powerful musical drama.

8 MOR 2015-16 Season Annual Report The Sostenuto Society Preserve a precious cultural legacy • Create new music through commissions • Educate our children and grandchildren Since its inception in 2002, the Sostenuto* Society has formed the core of MOR’s fiscal stability. The Sostenuto Society welcomes as members those farsighted and generous donors *Sostenuto who make a three-year gift commitment to Music of Remembrance. Through their dedica- a musical term tion to MOR’s mission, Sostenuto Society members provide sustained support for MOR meaning programming. This enables us to plan and undertake long-range projects such as the com- “to sustain” mission of new works by some of today’s most important composers, our educational pro- grams, and special initiatives like our documentary film The Boys of Terezín. 2015–16 Season Crescendo Carole Ellison Sostenuto Silver H. David Kaplan ($7,500 and above) Susan Shanbrom-Krabbe ($1,200 to $2,499) Dr. Erika Michael Pat and Marcus Meier & Moe Krabbe Jan & Kenneth Block Nickolas Newcombe Lori Laitman & Bruce Frederick Yudin Olga & Henry Butler Lucy & Herb Pruzan Rosenblum Pamela & Dr. Robert Lin & Dr. Murray MOR honors the past Mina Miller & David Sabritt Sostenuto Gold Center Robinovitch Beth Ann Segal ($2,500 to $4,999) Judy & Krijn DeJonge Pat & Jon Rosen while instilling hope The Purple Lady/Barbara J. David Epstein Dr. Leo Sreebny for the future. Sostenuto Platinum Meislin Fund Thea Fefer Kyoko & Michio Taguchi – Audience member ($5,000 to $7,499) Ursula Rychter Toni Freeman Craig Sheppard & Isaac Alhadeff Foundation Alice & Howard Gregory Wallace Rebecca Crown Greenwood Nancy & Dr. Stanley Zeitz DONORS 2015-16 SEASON

Angel (Over $50,000) Brenda Berry & Jonathan Green Anonymous Camille & David Jassny Anonymous Judy & Krijn DeJonge Patron ($500 to $999) Aidan Lang Nancy Livingston & Fred Levin, Laura Ingham & Roy Lundgren Cornerstone ($25,000 to $49,999) The Shenson Foundation Dr. Shelley Bookspan Leo Medeiros Pat & Marcus Meier In memory of Ben & A, Jess Barbara & Dr. Joseph Buchman Helene Ellenbogen & Wayne National Endowment for the Arts Shenson Anne Cahn Parker Consulate General of Israel to the Sherry & James Raisbeck The Purple Lady/Barbara J. Carol Pruzan Meislin Pacific Northwest Pillar ($10,000 to $24,999) Joseph Crnko Bernice Mossifer Rind Carole Ellison Nickolas Newcombe Gene Scheer Dr. Nancy Powell Barry Davison Susan Shanbrom-Krabbe & Moe Jane Bernstein & Bob Ellis Dr. Irene Silverblatt Krabbe Lucy & Herbert Pruzan Rosalind Singer Ursula Rychter The Honorable John Erlick Bernard Osher Anthony & Joan Japha Joanne & Larry Smith Gerald Rosenstein* Dr. Leo Sreebny Mary Helen Smith Gregory Wallace Drs. Betty Miller & Marvin Mina Miller & David Sabritt Kolotkin Sandra Spear Ululani Foundation Sponsor ($1,000 to $2,499) Arabelle & Simon Liepold Helen & Thomas Spiro Frederick Yudin Lynn & Howard Behar Microsoft Matching Funds Lisa Unsoeld-Chang C. Louise & Dr. Stafford Miller Petra Walker Founder ($5,000 to $9,999) Olga & Henry Butler Janet & Lloyd Cluff Naomi & Jonathan Newman In-kind Supporters 4Culture Jenny Knapp-Parce and Erich Isaac Alhadeff Foundation Thea Fefer Jan & Kenneth Block Toni Freeman Parce Dmitriy Lipay Recordings Adina & Jack Almo Connie Gould & Phil Rudman Donna Benaroya Devorah & Saul Gamoran Encore Media Group Alice & Howard Greenwood Charyl & Earl Sedlik The Hilton – Seattle Consulate General of the Federal Barbara & Dr. Richard Shikiar Republic of Germany - San Jake Heggie Hyatt Hotels – Seattle Marcia Wagoner & David Hewitt Sonia Spear The J-Weekly Francisco Michael Waddell Rebecca Crown Gale Kessler KING FM 98.1 Barbara & Theodore Daniels Eva & Jon LaFollette Donor ($250 to $499) Michael Beaton Photography David Epstein Frederick McDonald Rene Alkoff Jon LaFollette Photography H. David Kaplan Dr. Erika Michael Diane & Jean-Loup Baer Mina Miller John Laughlin Lin & Dr. Murray Robinovitch Judith Block Perkins Coie, LLC Bernice & John Lindstrom Pat & Jon Rosen Pamela & Edward Bridge Sabritt Solutions, LLC Lori Laitman & Bruce Rosenblum Rabbis Beth & Jonathan Singer Lisa Delan San Francisco Classical Voice Susan Corwin & Joseph (Temple Emanu-El) Gregory Facktor Seattle Gay News Rothberg Kyoko & Michio Taguchi Ann & Donald Frothingham Seattle Art Museum Seattle Office of Arts & Culture Valli Benesch & Bob Tandler Natalie Gendler Spear Studios Philanthropic Fund Joanna & Lane Gerber The Stranger Benefactor ($2,500 to $4,999) Eileen Glasser Wesley & Mark Gena & Sonny Gorasht Kyoko & Michio Taguchi Jan & Kenneth Block Wesley Nancy Griffin Pamela & Dr. Robert Center Nancy & Dr. Stanley Zeitz Dr. Martin Greene *in blessed memory

MOR 2015-16 Season Annual Report 9 Financial Summary

MOR continues to dare going places that stretch $800,000 Figure 1: Total Expenses by Year the scope of what many people would expect of a small $700,000 n In-kind organization like ours. With fully-staged productions of Out n Cash $600,000 of Darkness in Seattle and San Francisco, the 2015-16 season represented another bold leap forward. Commissioning and $500,000 premiering a complete opera by Jake Heggie, seen by many $400,000 as the most important opera composer of our time, was a

$300,000 precious and timely opportunity that culminated a decade- long collaboration. It also was our most financially ambitious $200,000 venture to date, with one-time opera production expenses: $100,000 building stage, lighting and media designs; transporting

0 the entire production between Seattle and San Francisco; creating a professional-quality video of the performance. FY1998-99 FY1999-2000 FY2000-01 FY2001-02 FY2002-03 FY2003-04 FY2004-05 FY2005-06 FY2006-07 FY2007-08 FY2008-09 FY2009-10 FY2010-11 FY2011-12 FY2012-13 FY2013-14 FY2014-15 FY2015-16 The total cost of the Out of Darkness project was $186,050, about 43% of MOR’s cash expenses for FY 2015-16. With the help of a highly-focused development campaign that Figure 2: Total Revenues by Year anticipated the scale of the project, MOR’s FY 2015-16 cash revenues covered 96% of its cash expenses in this special year. $800,000 n Income n In-kind contributions MOR’s 1998-99 inaugural season consisted of two major $700,000 concerts at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, with total expenses $600,000 of about $16,000 (excluding in-kind contributions $500,000 of professional services). By the end of the 2015-16

$400,000 season, MOR’s accomplishments have grown to include

$300,000 the commissioning and premiere of over 20 important new Holocaust-inspired musical works and six dance $200,000 commissions, eight CDs (seven released on the world- $100,000 leading Naxos label), an annual major free concert marking 0 International Holocaust Remembrance Day, an annual

FY1998-99 series of free concerts-with-commentary in partnership with FY1999-2000 FY2000-01 FY2001-02 FY2002-03 FY2003-04 FY2004-05 FY2005-06 FY2006-07 FY2007-08 FY2008-09 FY2009-10 FY2010-11 FY2011-12 FY2012-13 FY2013-14 FY2014-15 FY2015-16 the Seattle Art Museum and other community settings, an extensive educational outreach program in local schools and Figure 3: Cash Reserves by Year colleges, and two documentary films. With this expanded $350,000 scope, the organization’s total expenses (excluding in-kind

$300,000 equivalents) for the FY 2015-16 were $427,847 (Figure 1). MOR’s base of supporters has continued to grow, and $250,000 to embrace the organization’s mission and its musical $200,000 and educational programming. From its inception, the organization’s revenues (excluding in-kind contributed $150,000 services) have grown from about $20,000 for MOR’s $100,000 first season to $410,300 in FY 2015-16 (Figure 2).

$50,000 Throughout these years of rapid growth, and response to new opportunities, MOR has remained a careful steward of its $0 resources. At the end of FY 2015-16, it held cash reserves of $289,572 (Figure 3). FY1998-99 FY2002-03 FY2003-04 FY2004-05 FY2006-07 FY2007-08 FY2008-09 FY2009-10 FY2010-11 FY2011-12 FY2012-13 FY2013-14 FY2014-15 FY2015-16 FY1999-2000 FY2000-01 FY2001-02 FY2005-06 Ticket sales can never account for a major portion of MOR’s

10 MOR 2015-16 Season Annual Report budget (Figure 4), and the organization depends on the support Figure 4: FY 2015-16 Revenue Sources, of donors who believe in its mission. In FY 2015-16, individual Excluding in-kind and net receivables donors contributed $240,257, or about 59% of MOR’s revenue (Total $410,300) excluding in-kind contributed services and receivables. Of this Interest <1% amount, approximately 21% ($51,545) was generated by MOR’s CD Sostenuto/ Sostenuto Society, whose members pledge a minimum annual Sales Fundraising Events Crescendo < 1% 23% 13% gift of at least $1,200 for three years. Individual donations also Commissioning/ included gifts totaling $47,500 from MOR’s Commissioning and Recording Circle 12% Ticket sales Recording Circle, a group of donors focused on MOR’s unique 9% Testimonies for Tomorrow initiative. These sustained donors make a Government 8% Other Individual lasting impact, adding to the organization’s ability to anticipate donations 34% resources that will be available for long-term projects. This ability is especially important as MOR plans future commissions, recordings, and other large-scale projects that require proactive Corporate funding. Although government funding provides a small fraction Foundations donations 1% <1% of the organization’s total cash revenue, it is an important reflection of the role that MOR plays in the cultural life of our city, our state and our nation. At a time of reduced government spending, MOR maintained its support from the Seattle Office Figure 5: FY 2015-16 Cash Expenses of Arts and Cultural Affairs and 4Culture. We also received a (Total $427,847) Facilities and Other operating highly competitive Art Works grant of $22,000 from the National Fundraising equipment 4% expenses 5% Endowment for the Arts to help support the Out of Darkness opera expenses 3% commission and production. Contracted professional MOR takes very seriously its responsibility to control its costs, and services 2% Artist fees 14% to focus its resources on its musical programming. In FY 2015- 16, about 52% of cash expenditures were for artist fees, composer Artistic commissions and other artistic production expenses (Figure 5). production This number does not include the considerable portion of the Personnel 34% costs 32% Commissions Artistic Director’s effort devoted directly to the programming 6% and management of performance events, and does not reflect her participation as a key performing artist. MOR’s personnel includes the Artistic Director (compensated at 50% of a normal Commissions professional salary) whose creative vision forms the core of MOR; 6% a Development Officer charged with expanding MOR’s funding base; and an Administrator whose expanded responsibilities include marketing and promoting MOR’s events as well as managing the organization’s office operations. The approved FY 2016-17 budget anticipates expenses of $383,300, a reduction of about 10% from FY 2015-16. This budget allows us to continue offering the innovative programming, superior performances and meaningful community involvement that have distinguished Music of Remembrance. It includes a May concert at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in addition to our three Benaroya Hall concerts and our other programs in Seattle. It also supports another major commission, this time a multi-media work exploring the fate of Europe’s Roma during the Holocaust. In building for the future, we are focused on MOR’s long-term sustainability, and on extending our reach to all sectors of the community and to all generations everywhere. MOR and its growing family of supporters continue to create and preserve memories for the future.

MOR 2015-16 Season Annual Report 11 Music of Remembrance Commissioning & Recording Circle MOR’s Commissioning and Recording Circle consists of visionary donors who enthusiastically embrace MOR’s unique Testimonies for Tomorrow — the commissioning and recording of new works by leading contemporary composers inspired by Holocaust themes and stories. Through their generosity, members of the Commissioning and Recording Circle are committed to providing MOR the resources necessary to continue these uniquely important projects. Learn more about MOR’s Commissioning and Recording Circle: call MOR at (206) 365-7770 or email MOR’s artistic director: [email protected]

MOR Commissions MOR’s supporters have funded the creation of twenty new musical works and six dances.

Jake Heggie Out of Darkness 2016 Lori Laitman Vedem (song cycle) 2011 Olivier Wevers choreography to Bohuslav Martinu˚’s Donald Byrd choreography to Joel Engel’s La Revue de Cuisine 2015 The Dybbuk Suite 2010 Tom Cipullo After Life 2015 Lori Laitman Vedem (oratorio) 2010 Donald Bryd choreography to ’s Donald Byrd choreography to Franz Schreker’s Transfigured Night2014 The Wind 2009 Donald Byrd choreography to Dick Kattenburg’s Aharon Harlap Pictures from the Private Collection of Tap Dance 2014 God 2009 Alicia Svigals The Yellow Ticket 2014 (expanded Paul SchoenfieldGhetto Songs 2008 instrumentation) David Stock Mayn Shvester Chaya 2008 Lori Laitman In Sleep The World Is Yours 2013 Gerard Schwarz Rudolf & Jeanette 2007 Pat Hon Destination Unknown, choreography to Jake Heggie For a Look or a Touch 2007 Betty Olivero’s Zeks Yiddishe Lider Un Tanz 2013 Gerard Schwarz In Memoriam 2005 Jake Heggie Farewell, Auschwitz 2013 Lori Laitman The Seed of Dream 2004 Jake Heggie For a Look or a Touch (song cycle) 2013 Thomas Pasatieri Letter to Warsaw 2003 Jake Heggie Another Sunrise 2012 Paul SchoenfieldCamp Songs 2002 Betty Olivero Kolo’t 2011 David Stock A Vanished World 1999

At the end of its eighteenth season, MOR had performed over 130 works by 75 composers, including music from the Terezin, Kovno, Lodz, Sachsenhausen and Vilna ghettos. Some of these works were already known, but many others awaited rescue from undeserved neglect.

Support Music of Remembrance Music of Remembrance depends on donors who, through their generosity, become partners in our mission to remember. Every gift directly supports our concerts, education and outreach activities, allowing us to serve the community and beyond through our unique and compelling programs. MOR is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. To learn about opportunities for giving, call Lia Deromedi, Development Officer, at (206) 365-7770, or email: [email protected]. Contributions can be mailed to us at: Music of Remembrance, PO Box 27500, Seattle, WA 98165-2500 You may also contribute online through our website: www.musicofremembrance.org