Meira Warshauer’s In Memoriam

Composer Meira Warshauer’s In Memoriam September 11 and Caesaria will be presented in the U.S. and Germany in several formats by several ensembles on Saturday, September 10 and Sunday, September 11, 2011.

The World and German Premiere performances of the cello choir version of In Memoriam (for 6 celli, adapted by Mirel Iancovici from the version for solo cello and strings) will be given by Mr. Iancovici and I Multicelli in Bottrop at Martinskirche on September 10 at 7:00 PM, in Gelsenkirchen at the New Synagogue on the 11th at noon and in Gladbeck at the Martin Luther Forum Ruhr on the 11th at 6:00 PM. Other composers on these programs include J.S. Bach, Mozart, Ravel, Samuel Barber, Max Bruch and John Tavener. Special guest soloist will be Felicia Hamza.

In Memoriam, in its clarinet/cello transcription, will be performed on 9/11 – 2:30 PM by Cross Island’s cellist Suzanne Mueller clarinetist Joseph Rutkowski, Jr. at Firefighters Memorial Park (Jon’s Park) in Great Neck Plaza, New York. The ensemble has presented other performances throughout Long Island in 2010 and 2011. ..more


The piece, in its original version for solo cello will be performed on September 11 at 3:00 PM by Robert Jesselson as part of the University September Concert Series in the Recital Hall of the School of Music at University of South Carolina in Columbia. Jesselson has previously performed this version in Vermont, North Carolina, Maine, South Carolina and Ohio, as well as in England, Taiwan and Korea. You can hear his performance online at http://www.kalvos.org. It was also broadcast on Kol Israel radio in an hour-long program of the music of Meira Warshauer in Spring 2002.

This version will also be performed by Diana Golden at a 9:00 AM September 11th Memorial Service at St. Anne’s in-the-Fields Episcopal Church in Lincoln, Massachusetts, near Walden Pond.

Marvin Rosen will be airing In Memoriam as part of his We Remember September 11 marathon, beginning September 10 at 7:00 PM on WPRB 103.3 FM Princeton University radio. Listen online at http://www.wprb.com/.

Ms. Warshauer’s Caesaria for soprano and piano (from a text by Hannah Senesh) will be performed by Serena Hill, soprano as part of September 11, 2001: A Community Remembers – 4:00 PM that day at the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker Performing Arts Center of Coker College in Hartsville, South Carolina. Special guests will be the college’s dance ensemble.

The composer writes about In Memoriam, “I wrote these sketches during the days of watching the horror of the attacks of September 11: the collapse of the World Trade Center, the attack on the Pentagon, the plane crash in Pennsylvania – I didn’t have a piece in mind, or consciously set out to write one. But the sketches seemed to belong together, afterwards, and to fit the solo cello – It is my way of holding each other in our loss.”

The piece is also available in versions for violin solo (commissioned by Gregory Harrington and performed by him as part of his five city tour of New Zealand in March 2008), violin and cello duo, violin and bass clarinet duo, clarinet solo, clarinet and bass clarinet duo, and solo cello with string ensemble or string orchestra.

Cellist Andrea Yun presented the solo cello version at the University of Texas San Antonio in 2003.

The version for solo cello and string orchestra was premiered in February 2003 at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, by solo cellist Ina Esther Joostand the King David Strings (members of the Jerusalem Symphony) conducted by Anita Kamien. Ms. Joost also performed the solo version in Israel, the U.S., Brazil and Germany.

Cellist Christopher Johns also performed the soloist and string orchestra version with the Tallis Chamber Orchestra in Wilmington, North Carolina in 2009.

Orit Orbach performed the solo clarinet version at the International Clarinet Festival in Israeland theclarinet and bass clarinet version was premiered in 2004 at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina.

Program notes and a study score for the solo cello version of In Memoriam September 11 are available at http://meirawarshauer.com/NEW/pages/compositions_chamber.html. String orchestra materials are available at http://meirawarshauer.com/NEW/pages/compositions.html#.

Audio excerpts of solo cello and cello and strings recordings of the piece can be found at http://meirawarshauer.com/NEW/pages/sound_links/In_memoriam.html.