This Focus Residency takes its inspiration from writer Martin Goldsmith’s book The Inextinguishable Symphony, in which he shares the remarkable true story of his parents, Gunther Goldschmidt and Rosemarie Gumpert Goldschmidt. During the Nazi regime, they were members of the all-Jewish orchestra, the Jüdischer Kulturbund, a group maintained as a propaganda tool by the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. The Goldschmidts’s participation in this group ultimately helped save their lives in Nazi Germany, and Goldsmith’s book inspired the making of a film, Winter Journey, which will be screened on March 25 preceding a Q&A with the author. The following day’s concert program features works for winds and piano, including works by composers who were silenced as victims of the Holocaust, as well as works performed by the Jüdischer Kulturbund.
About the movie
Hailed as “a masterpiece” by European critics and “phenomenal ” by the Hollywood Insider, Winter Journey is a fascinating film exploration of a little-known aspect of musical life in Nazi Germany. Dealing with themes of guilt, Jewish identity, and father-son relationships, Winter Journey is moving proof of William Faulkner’s observation that “the past is never dead; it isn’t even past.” The film features Bruno Ganz in his last-ever screen appearance and is directed by Martin Goldsmith, who unearths his parents’ story of musical community and survival in Nazi Germany.
View the 2022–23 Focus Residencies brochure online.