The Ballad of Mauthausen CANCELLED

WE HAVE JUST LEARNED THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

The finest musical work about the Holocaust ever written.” – Αντωνης Μποσκοιτης 

The Ballad of Mauthausen features a Yiddish translation of the famous Mauthausen song cycle by composer Mikis Theodorakis.

Theodorakis’ original composition was a cycle of four arias with lyrics based on poems written by Greek poet Iakovos Kambanellis, a survivor of the Nazi slave labor camp in Mauthausen, Upper Austria. Mauthausen was one of the most brutal Nazi concentration camps, where over half the inmates died simply as a result of the severe conditions, before 1940, when the Germans began systematically killing prisoners in gas chambers.

Several years ago, Niki Jacobs, a world-renowned Yiddish singer, had the “Mauthausen” libretto translated into Yiddish – the language that most Jewish inmates of Mauthausen would have spoken – and the music was transcribed for her small but mighty ensemble. Theodorakis himself approved the project, which he both praised and supported. Jacobs has assembled an outstanding group of musicians, with roots in jazz, Balkan, klezmer, classical and improvised music, for the project. The musicians include Ro Krauss, viola/vocals; Peter van Os, accordion; Ruud Breuls, trumpet; and Emile Visser, cello.