Composed by Professor Michael Zev Gordon, ‘A Kind of Haunting’ tells the story of the piecing together of his grandfather’s murder in Poland in 1941
Professor Michael Zev Gordon, Professor of Composition in the Department of Music, is set to reveal his latest piece to audiences in Birmingham, London and Saffron Walden in March 2025, in what he describes as his most personal work to date.
‘A Kind of Haunting’ - for two narrators, baritone and string orchestra - is a powerful reflection on the Holocaust and the relationship that surviving generations have with it. Through the piece, Professor Gordon recalls the journey he personally went on as he learnt the details of his grandfather’s murder in Poland in 1941. The performance is an important commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust murdered outside of concentration camps, known as the ‘Holocaust by bullets’.
Interwoven with Professor Gordon's story are commentaries by Columbia Professor Emerita Marianne Hirsch, author of The Generation of Post-Memory. Poetry from award-winning poet Jacqueline Saphra, is also set as five arias for baritone soloist James Newby.
"My father's family were caught in the war in Poland and my grandfather was killed there in summer 1941. But I grew up with little knowledge of any of the details; it was a subject shrouded in silence,” says Professor Gordon. “Years later, as an adult I started to want to piece together some of what happened, and I was helped in this by a memoir that my grandmother wrote in Yiddish, that we eventually had translated into English.
“In my earlier years as a composer, my Jewish background played no conscious part in my work. Perhaps I even pushed it away. But gradually I have come to include it more and more - in subjects for pieces, in musical references. 'A Kind of Haunting' will be far and away the most direct expression of my cultural - and familial - inheritance.”
The piece is the second part of a programme commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, also featuring Martinu's Double Concerto and Strauss' Metamorphosen. Britten Sinfonia is conducted by Jonathan Berman.
Professor Gordon discussed his family history and how it informed the composition on Deutsche Welle’s ‘Focus on Europe’ programme.
Tickets for three performances are available for purchase:
Barbican Centre, Milton Court - 25 March 2025, 19:30
Elgar Concert Hall, Bramall Music Building, University of Birmingham – 26 March 2025, 19:30
Professor of Composition
Biographical and contact information for Professor Michael Zev Gordon, Professor of Composition at the University of Birmingham.
