The Lowell Milken Center for the Music of the American Jewish Experience at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music has announced the second part of its “Music and Justice” series on May 18, 2023, in UCLA’s Royce Hall.

“Righteousness and Bravery: A Concert for Sugihara,” honors the Japanese Vice Consul Chiune Sempo Sugihara, who saved thousands of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust.

Works to be presented include the west coast premiere of Lera Auerbach’s Symphony No. 6, “Vessels of Light,” a commissioned work by Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, and The American Society for Yad Vashem. The concert will be conducted by Neal Stulberg and performed by Kristina Reiko Cooper on cello, the UCLA Philharmonic, and singers.

“The story of Chiune Sugihara touched me deeply and I felt absolutely compelled to help bring this incredible story forward,” said renowned cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper, who is married to a descendant of Jews saved by Sugihara.

The UCLA Philharmonic will also perform Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony. Stulberg paired this work with Auerbach’s for the soulful quality that complements “Vessels of Light,” a bitingly expressive work.