MUSIC ONCE BANNED: Violinist Siwoo Kim peforms in the Concordia Chamber Players’ upcoming program of works by composers once persecuted for their religious beliefs or skin color.

On Sunday, November 6 at 3 p.m., Concordia Chamber Players’ first regular subscription concert will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church, 6587 Upper York Road in Solebury, Pa. Tickets are $75.

In this program, entitled “The Degenerates,” they will explore the works of composers categorized as such by the Nazi regime for the color of their skin or their religion. The String Quartet No. 2 of Florence Price will be performed along with String Quartet No. 1 in A Major by Alexander Zemlinsky, and String Quartet No. 1 in E-flat Major by Felix Mendelssohn.

Violist David Samuel of the Alexander String Quartet will have his first performance with Concordia along with Gabriela Diaz and Siwoo Kim on violin, and Michelle Djokic on cello.

When artistic director Djokic conceived of this program, there was talk of book-banning in certain regions of the country. She believes this music, which was nearly lost, would be a good reminder of the potential cost of intolerance to our cultural fabric. The Zemlinsky and Mendelssohn are early works and not entirely in the voice of what those composers eventually became.

The day before the concert, a free open rehearsal and lecture by Carol Cruickshanks, executive director of the New Hope Arts Center, will be held at the New Hope Arts Center, 2 Stockton Avenue, New Hope, Pa. “The Degenerates” is a brief history of art, music, and literature in the 1930s. Admission is free.

Degenerates was a term applied by Adolf Hitler to modernism and non-classical interpretations of visual arts, music, and literature. Specifically, it denotes an exhibition mounted in 1937 by the Munich Nazi Party to defame specifically German artists as well as already famous artists — Picasso, Mondrian, Chagall, and Kandinsky among others – who did not adhere to the notions of visual art dictated by Hitler and Minister of Reich Culture, Joseph Goebbels.

Visit Concordiaplayers.org for more information.