SHERMAN — Renowned Holocaust ethnomusicologist, educator and recitalist Dr. Tamara Reps Freeman will tell the stories of composers interned in ghettos and concentration camps of the Holocaust, and will play their music on her 1935 Joseph Bausch viola that was rescued and secretly shipped to the U.S., at the “Music of the Holocaust:  Melodies of Solace, Hope and Spiritual Resistance,” a program to be held at the JCC in Sherman on Saturday, May 4, 7 p.m.  

To help the audience experience first-hand the power and passion of this historically significant body of work, Freeman will lead community in singing the music of these composers, both children and adults, who chronicled their hardships and triumphs through original evocative lyrics and melodies.

Dr. Freeman is the musicologist for the Association of Holocaust Organizations, the international alliance of Holocaust museums, state commissions, and education programs. She is an adjunct professor of Holocaust music at Montclair State University’s John J. Cali School of Music, where she coaches two graduate ensembles on archival Holocaust Art Music. In addition, she is guiding Montclair State University in creating the country’s first Institute of Holocaust Education Through the Arts.

A concert violinist and violist, Freeman has performed at numerous venues, including the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. In 2018, she was the artist director and conductor of the first All-State Holocaust Music Concert held in Nashville Tennessee with more than 250 students participating. 

Tamara Reps Freeman, and her husband, Barry Freeman Ed.D. live in New Fairfield, Connecticut and Saddle River, New Jersey.

Tickets to Music of the Holocaust: Melodies of Solace, Hope and Spiritual Resistance are $10/members, $15/non-members. Pre-paid registration is required by May 2. 

For tickets and/or more information: jccinsherman.org, (860) 355-8050, info@jccinsherman.org.

CAP: Dr. Tamara Reps Freeman