The Lost Rhapsody: A World War II Survival Story and Musical Legacy

Saturday, October 14, 7:30pm, MSU Fairchild Theatre and Sunday, October 15, 2:15pm, at the JCC’s Berman Center for the Performing Arts in West Bloomfield

The Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel at MSU in collaboration with Michigan State University College of Music and The Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit’s Lenore Marwil Detroit Jewish Film Festival, proudly presents “The Lost Rhapsody: A World War II Survival Story and Musical Legacy.”

This exclusive event will feature a screening of David Hoffert’s acclaimed documentary film, The Rhapsody, about composer and Holocaust survivor Leo Spellman who, at the age of 98, set out on a riveting and emotional journey towards artistic liberation. Composer and Holocaust survivor Leo Spellman’s secret wartime diary and long-lost orchestral masterpiece are the framework that bring his remarkable tale of survival to life. His eighteen months in hiding are portrayed through bold artwork and animation narrated by award-winning actor Stephen Fry.

Before the film, Professor Amy Simon, William and Audrey Farber Family Endowed Chair in Holocaust Studies and European Jewish History, MSU’s Michael and Elaine Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel, James Madison College, and the Department of History, will give a short historical context for the program. She will discuss the importance of wartime diaries, such as Leo Spellman’s, in uncovering the perspectives of Jews at the time of the Holocaust.

Immediately following the film will be a live performance of Leo Spellman’s 24-minute symphonic masterpiece, “Rhapsody 1939-1945.” The MSU Symphony, conducted by Octavio Más-Arocas, Associate Professor of Music, Director of Orchestras, at Michigan State University, will perform the piece that was lost and forgotten for more than 50 years.

The program concludes with a talkback with the film’s producers, Paul and Brenda Hoffert, moderated by Rabbi Eli Mayerfeld, CEO of The Zekelman Holocaust Center.

This is the first time anywhere that the film The Rhapsody will be paired with Leo Spellman’s symphonic piece “Rhapsody 1939-1945.” This remarkable program is made possible through a “Making Music Happen” grant from The Center for Arts and Culture at JCC Association, in collaboration with The J’s SAJE (Seminars for Adult Jewish Enrichment) Program, the Michael and Elaine Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel at MSU, and The Zekelman Holocaust Center.

 “THE LOST RHAPSODY”

The MSU program on Saturday, October 14, is free to Serling Institute faculty, staff, and students. The Fairchild Theatre is located at 542 Auditorium Rd, East Lansing.

For more information, please visit www.music.msu.edu/fairchild or call (517) 355-1855.

The Berman is located at The J, 6600 W. Maple Road, West Bloomfield. Tickets for Sunday, October 15, are $18 each and can be purchased by visiting www.jccdet.org/filmfestival. For more information, please call (248) 609-3303.

Leo Spellman was born on April 18, 1913 in Poland into a family of revered musicians. His incredible journey, brought to cinematic life so vividly in The Rhapsody, began in Furstenfeldbruck, a German DP camp where he started composing “Rhapsody” in 1947. Leo and his wife had miraculously survived the Holocaust, hiding in the forests of Poland and then hiding in an apartment in Ostrowiec with his wife and brother-n-law thanks to the unlikely offer of shelter from a 21-year old Polish student, Henryk Wronski, who hid the couple for 18 torturous months.