A unique piano recital at York University will feature music by leading Dutch Jewish composers who were suppressed by the Germans during the Second World War. It will be performed by Deborah Nemko, professor of music at Bridgewater State University and faculty member of New England Conservatory’s Piano Preparatory and Continuing Education Program.
"Music in the time of Anne Frank," presented by the Isreal & Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University, will take place March 3 at 2 p.m. in the Tribute Communities Recital Hall, Accolade East Building, Keele Campus.
The recital features lively and emotionally moving music by Leo Smit, Geza Frid, Daniel Belinfante, Dick Katenburg and Henriette Bosmans. Almost a century after their composition, some of these works will receive their Canadian debuts at this concert.
Though established as an interpreter of 20th- and 21st-century music, Nemko is equally at home playing the music of Ravel and Glass or Brahms and Beethoven. She regularly appears in concert throughout the United States and abroad as a soloist and collaborative artist. Nemko has performed in prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center and the Bethanienklooster in Amsterdam.
In Taiwan, Nemko and violinist Annegret Klaua were recognized by the Taipei Times as the first musicians to give an outreach concert in the remote village of Alisan.
Nemko is a frequent recording artist. Reviews of her performances describe her “beautiful and incisive playing.” After completing her 2015 Fulbright Fellowship in the Netherlands for her project “Suppressed and Forgotten Dutch Composers of World War II,” she developed innovative recitals and workshops on Dutch composers of the Holocaust.
A committed educator, Nemko has served as visiting faculty at Utrecht Conservatory (the Netherlands) and on the faculty of the International Master Classes in Belgium and the Grumo International Music Festival.
The event will include light kosher refreshments and complimentary parking in the Student Services parking structure. To RSVP, email cjs@yorku.ca.