Three universities bringing Holocaust oratorio to Europe

05/15/2008

Singers, instrumentalists and faculty soloists from the College of Saint Benedict, Saint John’s University, St. Cloud State University and the SCSU Cantabile Girls Choir leave May 20 for Europe, where they will perform the European premiere of a Holocaust oratorio May 29 at Natzweiler-Struthof, a former Nazi concentration camp in France.

The presentation of “To Be Certain of the Dawn” at a concentration camp is one of several concerts to be performed in Germany, Switzerland and France during the May 20-June 4 study tour.

“To Be Certain of the Dawn,” by composer Stephen Paulus and librettist Michael Dennis Browne, was premiered in 2005 by the Rev. Michael J. O'Connell at the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis to celebrate two important events – the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the death camps at the end of World War II and the 40th anniversary of the Vatican II document that condemned blaming Jews for the death of Christ.  Rooted in themes and subjects of mutual interest to the Jewish and Christian faith communities, the oratorio pays tribute to those who lost their lives in the Holocaust and honors survivors and their descendants.

Performers on the European study tour will participate in a curriculum guided by the Jewish Studies Program and the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education at St. Cloud State that includes visits to churches, mosques, synagogues, museums, universities and the European Union Parliament.