Music of Remembrance (MOR) will open the 2026-27 season with “Journeys” on Nov. 1, 2026 in Benaroya Hall’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall.

The concert will bring together musical works addressing migration, exile, and the search for safety across time.

In a statement, Mina Miller, MOR’s founder and artistic director said, “Though the stories in ‘Journeys’ come from different generations, they speak powerfully to a world still confronting displacement, persecution, and the search for refuge. ‘Journeys’ asks us to look beyond the headlines and listen to individual testimonies – spoken, sung, recorded, and remembered. This music illuminates and honors voices that history nearly left unheard.”

The concert marks the return of Steve Reich’s “Different Trains,” 25 years after the organization first performed the work with the famously minimalist composer then engineering the sound board from the audience. Violinist Mikhail Shmidt and violist Susan Gulkis Assadi, who took part in that performance, return for the 2026 concert. They will be joined by violinist Elisa Barston and cellist Walter Gray.

“Journeys” will also include the West Coast premiere of three selections from “We Go On, Oswego,” performed by mezzo-soprano Lily Bogas. The three songs – by composers John Musto, Lori Laitman, and Michael Rice, with texts by Mark Campbell and Caitlin Vincent – address learning a new language, the federal government’s limited refugee policy, and a young girl’s efforts to adapt to American life.

The program also includes “Stormy Seas” by Iranian American composer Sahba Aminikia and “Molto adagio” movement from the pioneering Black American composer George Walker’s String Quartet No. 1.

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