NOT HOME

War, revolution, unrest. A government is over turned and its people are spilled out. Such conflicts have marked the course of history and twisted the paths of nations, families, individuals. This concert includes the works of Frédéric Chopin, Manos Hadjidakis, Pablo Neruda, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Erich Korngold. Each carried the ‘old world’ with them – in their art, in the institutions they supported, in their friendships, and as the object of their nostalgia.

Some were labelled anachronistic by their contemporaries, as times and tastes shifted around them. But their work has endured. Excised from their nation’s fabric, they came to represent to the world-at-large a style, a voice, and an identity that is instrinsically of their people.

Still, there is the smaller, human scale to consider. Before becoming symbols, they were people caught betwen two worlds. People who waited for visas to be granted, people who navigated a new culture and (sometimes) a new language, people whose limits were determined by outside institutions and unfamiliar circumstances. They were like us.

This concert is a fundraising effort for refugees from Afghanistan. Knox Presbyterian Church has been working in partnership with the Afghan Church of the GTA to sponsor some of those in greatest need to start a new life in Canada. All funds raised will go directly to this effort.

Ilana Zarankin, soprano
Ariana Chris, mezzo-soprano
Sung Chung, baritone
Suna Smith, piano