For Dr. Joshua Fishbein, the worlds of music, family and history are always interconnected.
A choral conductor, singer, pianist, and music educator, Fishbein composed Out of the Ashes of Holocaust based on his family’s story of struggle and survival in Nazi-occupied Greece during World War II.
The composition will make its world premiere during a virtual concert presented by the Washington Master Chorale. The “Immortal Fire” concert can be viewed on-demand beginning Friday, May 21, at 7 p.m. through Monday, May 24.
A Baltimore native who lives in Rockville, Fishbein, 36, received grants from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County to create the work. “Out of the Ashes” will be conducted by Thomas Colohan, featuring the Washington Master Chorale Chamber Choir, pianist Thomas Pandolfi, violinist Foster Wang and cellist Rosanna Butterfield.
“I composed a 20-minute cantata based on my grandmother’s family’s survival story during the Holocaust when they were hidden by the Michalos family, a very generous Christian family in the mountains of Greece outside of [the city of] Patras,” says Fishbein. “If they hadn’t hidden my grandmother [Josephine Velelli Becker] and her family, I wouldn’t be alive and my children wouldn’t be alive today. I’m truly indebted to this family.”
After the war, Fishbein’s relatives and the Michalos family — by coincidence — all resettled in the Baltimore area and reunited years later by chance. They remained close over the years and even celebrated each other’s family milestones together.
“This is really a Baltimore story,” says Fishbein, who teaches at Johns Hopkins University, Towson University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
The story was chronicled in a 1984 Baltimore Sun article , as well as introduced that year into the Congressional Record by then-Rep. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.). In addition, the story is featured in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive.
Fishbein, who serves as music director of Chizuk Amuno Congregation’s Kol Rinah choir, licensed the Sun article to create his composition.
“My wife, Marina, and I adapted the words from the Congressional Record and the article into lyrics that could be sung,” Fishbein says. “Once we got the words down, the music really came naturally. I couldn’t have done it without my wife, who is a great writer.”
“Out of the Ashes” was originally conceived as a live performance piece for chorus and orchestra, but the pandemic changed Fishbein’s plans. “We had to alter our conception of what it was going to be,” he says. Now, the piece will be performed by 12 singers and three instrumentalists who will be spaced apart and wearing facemasks. It will be recorded, subtitled and formatted for the virtual event.
The surviving members of the Michalos family were invited to the performance with complimentary tickets.
Fishbein says he hopes that “Out of the Ashes” will resonate with audience members and touch their hearts.
“It’s a deeply emotional piece of music,” he says. “The Nazis discovered that the Michalos family were hiding British intelligence agents and burned their house to the ground. I want listeners to feel the profound union of both families hiding together after the house was burned. A Jewish family and a Christian family who never met before were just trying to survive together. I would not be alive if history had gone a different way.”
From this particular story, he says, comes a message that is profoundly relevant today.
“There is a universal theme of helping others and being compassionate towards others,” says Fishbein. “In the lyrics, we use the phrase that Barbara Mikulski quoted from Robert F. Kennedy’s [1966] ‘Day of Affirmation Address’ in Cape Town, South Africa: ‘Each time we stand up for an ideal, or act to improve the lot of others, or strike out against injustice, we send forth a tiny ripple of hope.’”
For information, visit washingtonmasterchorale.org/current-season/#tab-3.
Anna Lippe is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance writer.
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