October 3, 2023 at 7:30 pm
Baruch Performing Arts Center presents
The City Without Jews
1924 German-Jewish silent film newly restored
Featuring original music performed live by klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and silent film pianist Donald Sosin
On October 3, 2023 at 7:30 pm Baruch Performing Arts Center presents the screening of a rare, rediscovered European film that imagined the impact of antisemitism a decade before its events became all too real. The silent film is accompanied by live music, composed and performed by the world-renowned klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals (founding member of the Klezmatics) and celebrated silent film pianist Donald Sosin.
Based on the controversial and best-selling novel by Hugo Bettauer, H.K. Breslauer’s 1924 film adaptation of The City Without Jews (Die Stadt ohne Juden) is darkly comedic in tone, and stylistically influenced by German Expressionism. The film contains ominous and eerily realistic sequences, such as the shots of freight trains transporting Jews out of the city.
“In the 1920s, when The City Without Jews was released, it was a satire of something unimaginable,” said Howard Sherman, managing director of the Baruch Performing Arts Center. “Now, the film stands as a reminder of how, without vigilance, social imagination can become harrowing reality. We’re very pleased to welcome Alicia and Donald to perform their evocative and emotional score with this film, connecting the past with the present.”
This screening of The City Without Jews is presented with live original music by Alicia Svigals, violinist and Donald Sosin, pianist at 7:30 PM on October 3, 2023 at Baruch PAC. This program is made possible thanks the support of The Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts. Tickets are $22.50 general admission ($12.50 for students with Baruch ID), and are available at bpac.baruch.cuny.edu.
Baruch Performing Arts Center is at 55 Lexington Avenue (enter on 25th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues, on the south side of the street) in the heart of Manhattan. Praised for its superb acoustics, the Rosalyn and Irwin Engelman Recital Hall has been called "a perfect hall for chamber music" by Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times.
CALENDAR LISTING
October 3, 2023 at 7:30 pm
Baruch Performing Arts Center presents:
The City Without Jews (1924)
With original music performed live by klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and silent film pianist Donald Sosin
Composers & performers: Donald Sosin, piano; Alicia Svigals, violin
Director: H. K. Breslauer
Screenplay: H.K. Breslauer and Ida Jenbach, from the novel by Hugo Bettauer
Baruch Performing Arts Center (55 Lexington Avenue (enter on 25th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues) in Manhattan
Tickets are $22.50 for general admission ($12.50 for students with Baruch ID) and are available here
Artist Bios
Alicia Svigals and Donald Sosin have been bringing audiences to their feet throughout the US and Europe with their unique and stirring violin and piano scores for Jewish-themed silent films.
Violinist/composer Alicia Svigals is the world's leading klezmer fiddler and a founder of the Grammy award-winning Klezmatics. She has performed with and written for violinist Itzhak Perlman, and has worked with the the Kronos Quartet, playwrights Tony Kushner and Eve Ensler, poet Allen Ginsburg, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Debbie Friedman and Chava Albershteyn. In May 2023, Svigals was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by the Jewish Theological Seminary for “extraordinary contributions to the arts and Jewish life.” Svigals was awarded a Foundation for Jewish Culture commission for her original score to the 1918 film The Yellow Ticket, and is a MacDowell fellow. Her CD Fidl (1996) reawakened klezmer fiddle tradition. Her newest CD is Beregovski Suite: Klezmer Reimagined, with jazz pianist Uli Geissendoerfer—an original take on long-lost Jewish music from Ukraine.
Pianist/composer Donald Sosin received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Denver Silent Film Festival, and the Best Original Film Score award by the 2022 Mystic Film Festival. He has performed his scores for silent films, often with his wife, singer/percussionist Joanna Seaton, at Lincoln Center, MoMA, BAM, the National Gallery, and at dozens of film festivals and colleges around the world. He records for Criterion, Kino, Milestone, Flicker Alley and European labels, and has had commissions from MoMA, Deutsche Kinemathek, the Chicago Symphony Chorus and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Coming Up at Baruch PAC
Here are a few unmissable events coming up at Baruch Performing Arts Center this fall. Announcements about additional performances coming soon.
October 3, 2023: The City Without Jews
October 11-22: Reflex
October 25: Empire Wild