A Landmark Work of Research, Recovery & Translation
International release January 11, 2022
"Exhilarating in life-affirming ways." — David Stearns, The Philadelphia Inquirer Shines new light on the remarkable cultural life in the Terezín concentration camp.
• The first English translation of Ullmann's 26 accounts of Terezín concerts • 200+ rarely seen artworks by imprisoned artists • Vintage & modern recordings by survivors & contemporary masters Published by Steidl Verlag.
Available now from TMF, coming to US stores January 11, 2022. 328 pages 8.5 x 10.5 in./21.5 x 26.5 cm 22 black-and-white and 264 color photos and images. Clothbound hardcover $45. On sale here for $36. ISBN 978-3-95829-959-7 |
YO-YO MA: “Our Will to Live takes readers into the world of Terezín’s silenced artists and makes their voices come alive. A testimony to the inextinguishable strength of the human spirit. There are moments of excruciating beauty, there are heartrending stories, all reminding us that if we lose our humanity, we are nothing.”
In Terezín, a Nazi camp where 33,000 people died, a remarkable community of musicians and artists answered despair with creativity. Here is their astonishing world, captured firsthand in lively concert critiques by composer, scholar, and prisoner Viktor Ullmann. We meet Terezín’s choirs and solo artists, luminaries of European cabaret and opera, and a generation of accomplished composers silenced too soon. Paired with Ullmann’s critiques are more than 200 artworks: rarely seen concert posters, programs, portraits, and scenes recovered from their hiding places in barracks walls. Listen as you read to music from Terezín: the accompanying original collection of vintage and modern recordings performed by Terezín survivors and contemporary masters including Yo-Yo Ma and members of the Boston Symphony. Essays and annotations by scholar MARK LUDWIG deepen the journey. Soon after Ullmann wrote his final concert critique, nearly all the Terezín artists were murdered in Auschwitz. Our Will to Live is a tribute to their creative will. |
