Wolf Durmashkin Composition Award
The Wolf Durmashkin Composition Award, short WDCA, is an international composition contest, as well as a music- and composition award designed by the German cultural society dieKunstBauStelle e. V. in Landsberg am Lech. It is named after the Jewish composer and conductor Wolf Durmashkin (1914–1944).
In 2018 its participants were awarded for the first time. The competition is held in irregular intervals and the award ceremony takes place in different cities each time. The locations are chosen based on their historical references to the competition.[1][2] In 2021 the ceremony is planned to be held in Vilnius, Lithuania, the home of the competition's namesake.[3] The first-ever competition in 2018 was part of a themed festival week called 70 years – International Jewish-German festival and represented a new and interactive form of commemorative culture relating to the Holocaust.[4][5]
It was not only a cooperation between DieKunstBauStelle e. V. and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich and the Bavarian Philharmonic orchestra but was also supported internationally.[6][7]
The Wolf Durmashkin Composition Award is specifically targeted at newcomers and composers up to the age of 35.[8] Since all works of music premiere on the night of the ceremony, there are requirements concerning length and cast. Usually, three of all submitted works are awarded in total.
Background[edit]
The award was founded in 2018 by journalist and author Karla Schönebeck and Wolfgang Hauck.[9] The cause was the 70th anniversary of a concert played by Jewish Holocaust survivors from the DP-Orchestra in Landsberg am Lech on 10 May 1948. It was conducted by Leonard Bernstein.[10]
Namesake[edit]
The Jewish musician and composer Wolf Durmashkin is the WDCA's namesake. He came from a Jewish-Polish family of musicians in Vilnius, Lithuania. He conducted the Vilnius State Orchestra and worked as a choirmaster and composer.[11]
After his hometown had been occupied by German troops in 1941, Wolf Durmashkin and his family were forced to live in the Vilna Ghetto. He continued his musical activities under the new restrictions until his death. He was shot in the Klooga concentration camp, Estonia, in 1944, just one day before the camp was liquidated.[12]
His two sisters Henia (a singer) and Fania (a pianist) were deported to concentration camps in Kaufering and Landsberg am Lech, which were part of the Dachau Concentration Camp.[13] Four weeks after their liberation in 1945 they founded the St. Ottilien Displaced Person's Orchestra together with other musicians, who had survived the Holocaust. They performed said concert, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, in Landsberg and Feldafing on 10 May 1948.[14][9]
Patronage[edit]
Award winners[edit]
2018[7]
- First prize: Bracha Bdil, Jerusalem, Israel, born 1988
- Second prize: Rose Miranda Hall, York, England, born 1991
- Third prize: Otto Wanke, Vienna, Austria, born 1989[16]
References[edit]
- ^ Kompositionswettbewerb zum Thema „Musik und Holocaust“ erstmals ausgeschrieben, Deutscher Musikrat, 9 November 2017, retrieved 21 December 2020
- ^ Als Bernstein in Landsberg dirigierte, Kreisbote, Susanne Greiner, 29 November 2017, retrieved 21 December 2020
- ^ Der Wettbewerb wird in Litauen fortgesetzt, Landsberger Tagblatt, 25 May 2019
- ^ '70 Jahre - Internationale Jüdische-Deutsche Festwoche' als eine neue, aktive Form der Erinnerungskultur an den Holocaust, Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung, Projekte in den Förderprogrammen des BMEL, betreut durch den Projektträger BLE (ptble), retrieved 24 December 2020
- ^ Von der heilenden Kraft der Musik, Landsberger Tagblatt, Silke Feltes, 9 May 2020, retrieved 24 December 2020
- ^ Ein Kompositionspreis mit Potenzial, Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, 7 October 2019, retrieved 21 December 2020
- ^ a b Jury des Wolf Durmashkin Composition Awards gibt Preisträger*innen bekannt, Deutscher Musikrat, 22 February 2018, retrieved 21 December 2020
- ^ A music competition as a pulpor for a new memory culture, dieKunstBaustelle, last update 1 March 2020, retrieved 7 February 2021
- ^ a b Sisters remember sisters, Jewish Standard, 4 January 2018, retrieved 7 February 2021
- ^ Zum Gedenken an Ex-KZ-Orchester, BR-Klassik, Franziska Stürz, 9 May 2018, retrieved 21 December 2020
- ^ Wolf Durmashkin, Music and the holocaust, retrieved 21 December 2020
- ^ Kalish, Sloshana (1985). Yes, We Sang! Songs of the Ghettos and Concentration Camps. New York: Harper and Row. ISBN 0060912367.
- ^ Brown, Kellie D. (2020). The Sound of Hope: Music as Solace, Resistance and Salvation During the Holocaust and World War II. McFarland. ISBN 978-1476670560.
- ^ Beker, Sonia (2007). Symphony on Fire: A Story of Music and Spiritual Resistance During the Holocaust. The Wordsmithy LLC. ISBN 978-0-9748857-5-9.
- ^ Kompositionswettbewerb zum Thema "Musik und Holocaust" geht an den Start, Deutscher Musikrat, 7 December 2017, retrieved 21 December 2020
- ^ Es war eine tolle Erfahrung, Jüdische Allgemeine, Christine Schmitt, 18 June 2018, retrieved 24 December 2020