Today's Harbour Symphony will be very special. It is dedicated to Esther Béjarano, one of the last surviving members of the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz. She passed away at the age of 96 in Hamburg, Germany on July 10, 2021.

She knew that becoming a member of the orchestra would increase her chances to survive. Not really knowing how to play the instrument, she picked up the piano accordion, first playing only the piano keys, but over time learning to add the bass buttons. After the end of WWII she became one of the most outspoken public speakers against fascism and racism.

• From Delf Maria Hohmann, the composer of today's symphony: "I met her at the Festival of Political Song in Duisburg, Germany in 2010. We stayed in contact after. She was a beautiful and very strong woman."

• Things to listen for in the music today: The shorter higher pitched notes in the piece stand for Esther Béjarano playing the accordion while the lower and longer notes represent the steam engines of the freight trains as they slowed down approaching the so called "ramp" at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

Please read: “Esther Bejarano, 96, Dies; Auschwitz Survivor Fought Hate With Hip-Hop”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/arts/music/esther-bejarano-dead.html
and, in German only, (scroll down):
https://www.folker.de/Artikel.php?ausgabe=202101&art=Halbmast#11

'Esther Berajano'  by Delf Maria Hohmann, July 18, 2021.

Sound Symposium is an international festival of new music and sound art held every two years in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. For thirty years Sound Symposium has brought musicians, composers, sound artists, performers, audio craftspersons and academics to Canada's east cost to perform, collaborate and explore SOUND. It is world famous for it Harbour Symphony which scores and performs on ships horns in the harbour which is in a natural amphitheater geological formation.

'Esther Berajano' by Delf Maria Hohmann, July 18, 2021.

Sound Symposium

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