“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything."
— PLATO
Photo by Paul Lyden
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Prelude
DEBORAH SHELKAN REMIS began her journey, researching writing and creating SARA's VOICE sotto voce over 12 years ago. A former Holocaust educator and member of One by One, a group comprised of sons and daughters of Holocaust survivors and descendants of the Third Reich, Deborah has steadfastly researched the life of one individual of the Holocaust to reclaim a name and bring her story to life.
For many years, Deborah traveled to Berlin to work with her German counterparts to speak in schools, universities, and community organizations to model how historical enemies can come together in dialogue. Deborah knows about Sara, an acclaimed violin prodigy because she was her father's first wife. Growing up, her father, Cantor Gregor Shelkan, himself a Holocaust survivor and American born mother, Bertha Kerson who in 1946-1947 worked in Berlin at the Office of the Military Government of the United States(OMGUS) spoke about Sara. In June, 2015, Deborah traveled to Latvia to trace her father's footprints and garner more information about Sara's short, yet prodigious career as a violin virtuoso. Deborah is grateful for the support, energy, and friendship of everyone that has assisted her along her path of making the idea of SARA’s VOICE sotto voce a reality. Deborah believes that it is vitally important to record history and this theatrical violin concert is a small, yet significant contribution. SARA's VOICE sotto voce has been performed to capacity audiences at Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, MA and at a co-sponsored event by B'nai Tikvah Synagogue and the Jewish Federation in Calgary, Alberta. |
Click the image above to read the Sara's Voice Sotto Voce feature in North Shore Magazine's October 2015 issue.