815 Wilmot Road, Deerfield, IL 60015 · 847.945.1678 ·Giving
Defiant Requiem
Plans have changed for tonight event:
Rain can't keep us down - we're going 100% virtual for our Defiant Requiem screening tonight! Rather than cancel/postpone, we're just going to shift our event entirely online. Glad we've all become so adept at making the shift from in-person to online! :)
So here's the plan:
Hop on Zoom at 7:15pm tonight - I'll make sure everyone has the link to the online documentary, give a brief intro, and we'll watch the virtual choir together. Link to the meeting, or you can use meeting ID 857 5168 3348, passcode 554839.
We'll adjourn to watch the documentary online, simultaneously from our own homes - link to the full documentary here! Please write down any questions you can think of to ask Maestro Sidlin during the Q&A afterward!
As soon as the documentary is over, we'll come back into the SAME Zoom meeting (use the link/ID/passcode above!) and we'll watch the second virtual choir together and hold the Q&A session with Maestro Sidlin.
Thanks for your flexibility, folks! Please don't hesitate to email or text me (801.380.8245) if you have any questions.
My name is Kathryn Duncan, and I'm the music minister at St. Gregory's Episcopal Church. I would like to invite you to a special outdoor screening of the Emmy-nominated Defiant Requiem documentary, hosted by St. Gregory's Episcopal Church on Friday, Sept 11 at 7:30pm.
I had the extraordinary opportunity to perform this back in 2017 for 300 Holocaust survivors and their families in a live concert version of the documentary with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a fundraiser for the Jewish Federation's Holocaust Community Services program. It was something I will never, ever forget. If you're familiar with the Verdi Requiem, you will never hear it the same again.
The Defiant Requiem is a feature-length documentary that tells the extraordinary untold story of how Jewish prisoners at the Terezin concentration camp learned the entirety of the Verdi Requiem by ear, and performed it for their captors. With testimony by surviving members of the choir, soaring concert footage, and cinematic dramatizations, this unique film explores the singers' view of the Verdi Requiem as a work of defiance and resistance as they sang to the Nazis "what they dared not say."
Our screening will include virtual choirs of excerpts from the Verdi Requiem by friends of StG's, and will conclude with a very special live Q&A session with Murry Sidlin, the president and artistic director of the Defiant Requiem Foundation (who is featured in the documentary).
Logistics:
If you would like to share info about our screening with your friends/colleagues/choirs/congregations, I've included below a Google Drive link to a 2 minute promo I put together with footage from the trailer as well as details included on our screening. You can also view/link to the 3 minute Requiem's theatrical trailer here (which still gives me goosebumps every time I watch it). I. Please contact me if you wish jpg sized images for posting on social media and e-newsletters, as well as a flyer that can be printed and/or emailed out. ALL are invited! Even though we can only have 50 people in person, we have unlimited room via Zoom. This is a powerful experience we want to share with as many people as possible.
We will be showing the documentary by projection on a screen in our very large parking lot (socially distanced and masks required, no more than 50 people - please bring your camp chairs!), and also projecting the live Zoom Q&A with Maestro Sidlin. For those who cannot attend in person, we will send out a link to the documentary to be watched ahead of time, and then they can join in the Zoom Q&A after the screening. Our StG's movie discussion group will also focus on the Defiant Requiem the following Tuesday on Zoom at 7pm, for any who would like to delve further in!
Please have anyone who is interested RSVP directly to me ([email protected]) if they'd like a spot at the live screening at StG's, or if they'd like to receive the link to watch the documentary online/participate in the Zoom Q&A.
Thank you! I look forward to sharing this experience with you all.
Welcome to St. Gregory's – virtually! We know that the church is not the building in which we worship – but the people who worship and share God’s love with the world. In this time of social distancing, we will practice connectivity in new and powerful ways, for we know we all are connected as one in the Lord. Life is very different than we knew it to be, and yet our anchor in God’s love remains the same. All shall be well!
Everyone is experiencing the Pandemic in different ways. Many people are experiencing deeper loss than they ever have before, and we are here to support them during this time. If you are experiencing loss and grief, we are here to pray with you, talk with you, and help financially.
The Body of Christ exists to care for each other. Sometimes we can be generous, and sometimes we receive generosity. Both are equal acts of faith and grace, and one cannot exist without the other.
