(Photo credits: Bessent, Cheng, & Yildiz)

Music of Remembrance has announced its 2024-25 season.

This season aims to champion those who use their art to stand up against injustice and inspire action. Concerts will feature works by prominent Black American composers that confront the residual trauma of slavery, a 10th-anniversary production of an opera that addresses the responsibility of artists to reflect and shape society, and more. For the purposes of this article only vocal works are included.

“Art From Ashes” honors the 80th International Holocaust Remembrance Day with performances by the Northwest Boychoir and Seattle Girls Choir. The program includes music by Erwin Schulhoff.

“This program is intended to compel audiences not just to look back at history, but also to examine its meaning for today,” said MOR Artistic Director Mina Miller, in an official press release. “This year, ‘Art From Ashes’ falls exactly 80 years after the largest Nazi death camp was liberated by the Soviet Army, recognizing the millions of Jews, Roma, queer and disabled people, and other innocent civilians slaughtered at the hands of the Nazi regime. While it offers a message of hope and perseverance, this somber milestone must also serve as a reminder of the repercussions of ‘othering’ in the current cultural atmosphere.”

Performance Date: January 27, 2025

“Identity ” features Carlos Simon’s “Requiem for the Enslaved,” Jessie Montgomery’s “Source Code,” and Rhiannon Giddens’ “At the Purchaser’s Option.” Montgomery’s piece is performed with world-premiere choreography by Spectrum Dance Theater’s Donald Byrd.

Performance Date: March 16, 2025

Closing out the season is the 10th anniversary production of Tom Cipullo’s “After Life.” The work will be presented in a newly expanded version. It stars Michael Mayes as Picasso, Gabrielle Beteag as Gertrude Stein, and Alisa Jordheim as a young orphan girl.

“This is a story about artists in relation to history – the darkest history imaginable,” said librettist David Mason regarding the opera. “Today, as autocratic governments ascend all over the globe, most shockingly in the United States, an examination of how great artists survived Nazi-occupied France feels newly urgent. We ask: What is the position of art in a time of war? How does art respond to political disaster? And what can artists possibly do in the face of massive evil?”

Performance Dates: May 18 & 21, 2025 (Seattle & San Francisco, respectively)