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In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Polyphony: Voices of New Mexico will be performing 鈥淚n Remembrance.鈥�

International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is observed on Jan. 27, commemorates the victims of the Holocaust, the genocide of millions of Jewish people and minority groups by Nazi Germany. The date coincides with the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

鈥淭he music is originally composed by incarcerated folks from the Holocaust camps,鈥� Maxine Th茅venot, Polyphony artistic director, said. 鈥淢usicians that were held in the camps had just as much a story to tell through their music as those who were not musicians and who are poets or who were storytellers.鈥�

鈥淚n Remembrance鈥� includes 鈥淧rayer鈥� by Ernest Bloch, 鈥淗olocaust Cantata鈥� by Donald McCullough, Cello Suite No. 1 in G major by Johann Sebastian Bach and 鈥淓ven When He is Silent鈥� by Kim Andr茅 Arensen. Polyphony will perform 鈥淚n Remembrance鈥� on Saturday, Jan. 31, and Sunday, Feb. 1.

Th茅venot said 鈥淧rayer鈥� is a reflective, intense and very expressive piece that should hopefully prepare people for what comes in the 鈥淗olocaust Cantata,鈥� a combination of music and stories.

鈥淒onald McCullough did a fabulous job of collating and putting together not only actual written stories of incarcerated inmates in the Holocaust concentration camps,鈥� Th茅venot said, 鈥渂ut also taking musical annotations that have been gathered over the course of the past 80 years, and putting those together to form this wonderful cantata.鈥�

She said adding music from the camps, along with the prisoners鈥� stories, makes for a deeply impactful, emotionally woven-together piece.

鈥淚 think that the audience, if you鈥檙e open and receptive to it, you will experience the full gamut of emotions,鈥� Th茅venot said.

The material can be hard to perform.

鈥淚 will say that in our experience, it鈥檚 sometimes very hard not to cry and sing at the same time,鈥� Th茅venot said.

She said it is not all sad stories and some are funny, as the prisoners tried to keep their sense of humor and tell stories in a humorous way.

Th茅venot said she found that younger generations are not as aware of what happened in the concentration camps, and she hopes audience members will leave the concert changed and educated.

鈥淚t鈥檚 important to tell the stories of incarcerated inmates from the Holocaust, in part, so that if we don鈥檛 know our history, then we won鈥檛 know when it鈥檚 potentially starting to repeat itself,鈥� Th茅venot said.

鈥淎nd I think in this day and age, I don鈥檛 think I鈥檓 wrong in saying that antisemitism is on the rise,鈥� Th茅venot said, 鈥渁nd so it鈥檚 all the more important to share these stories so that we don鈥檛 go down that same road again.鈥�

Elizabeth Secor is an arts fellow from the New Mexico Local News Fellowship program. You can reach her at esecor@abqjournal.com.