Many people know the name of Frieda Belinfante; the Jewish and queer cellist who became a fierce resistance fighter in occupied Amsterdam, and went on to become the world’s first female conductor of a professional orchestra. Less people know the name of her relative Daniël Belinfante: a brilliant composer working in Amsterdam before dying in Auschwitz in 1945, just before Liberation Day.
At the core of this evening will be the performance of several of Daniël Belinfante’s songs. These songs, together with other contemporary counterpoints (such as Katherine Balch, John Cage, Hildegard of Bingen, Evan Johnson and Sarah Nemstov), will be performed by the extraordinary singer Patricia Auchterlonie. The music will be interleaved with new film vignettes created by artist – and ancestor – Sam Belinfante from new and archival materials of Frieda, Daniël, and Amsterdam’s lost Jewish Quarter. Music and film, then, will be interwoven by stories told by Nora Fischer about the neighbourhood’s history, war resistance, and the performers’ own reflections on genealogy and intergenerational trauma.
In collaboration with Festival Forbidden Music Regained and The Leo Smit Foundation. Supported by Vaughan Williams Foundation and The Marchus Trust.
Sam Belinfante - film
Patricia Auchterlonie - voice
Tobias Borsboom - piano
Nora Fischer - storytelling
This evening will be in English.