A Composer’s Response to the Holocaust

Composer, Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Piano Trio Op. 67 in 1944. By this time, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had created a shadow of fear and distrust among the Soviet people. While there was no official Anti-Semitism in the Party at that time, for 20 years Stalin banned all Jewish music, sent Jews to the gulag, and fired Jewish professors and artists. This year was also important because the first news reports of the horrors in concentration camps was available for the Soviet people in newspapers like Pravda. While Shostakovich never spoke publicly or wrote of the intended meaning behind this Trio (he dedicated the work to his dear departed musicologist friend, Ivan Sollertinsky), the notes on the page hold a second, stronger and defiant message that escaped the edicts of Stalin for four years. The work was then banned, as was all music by Shostakovich, labeled as “formalist”, an almost random term used by Stalin anytime artists pushed beyond their duty to both the leader and people. 

A concert, featuring this work with remarks on the background in context with the holocaust, will be presented by Assistant Professor, John Clodfelter on Sunday, April 6th at 4:00PM in the lobby of Reiland Fine-Arts building on the University of Jamestown Campus. Clodfelter will be joined by violinist, Laura Prokopyk (Bismarck State College, Concertmaster Missouri Valley Chamber Orchestra) and Dr. Erik Anderson (Full Professor and Chair of the Division at Minot State University).

The concert is free and open to the public.