On Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m., the UNC Charlotte Orchestra will present “Prayer for Peace: A Symphonic Remembrance of War, Holocaust and Hope” at the Booth Playhouse in the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. The concert not only marks the 100th anniversary of the Armistice but the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass"), an organized attack in 1938 that left Jewish homes, hospitals, and schools ransacked, at least 91 Jews dead and another 30,000 arrested and sent to concentration camps. This event is free and open to the public; no tickets are necessary.
The program thus links the two World Wars together through the repertoire, which includes music by composers who died in WWI battles, Lukas Foss's “Elegy for Anne Frank” and “Bestemming: Concerto for Narrator, Cello and Orchestra” by Sharon Farber (b. 1968), which sets texts by Curt Lowens, the Dutch hero of the Holocaust. Guests Cicely Parnas, cello, and Jay Morong, narrator, will join the orchestra, under the direction of Jonathan Govias.