Inspired by Weinberg

Projects inspired by the work and story

of Mieczyslaw Weinberg

Mieczyslaw Weinberg was a Jewish-Polish composer born in 1919. He grew up in Warsaw learning to play music with his father’s Yiddish theater group. At 20 years old, when the Nazis invaded, Weinberg fled eastwards and was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust. He spent the rest of his life in the Soviet Union creating brilliant classical compositions with clear Jewish and Klezmer themes. With his work, he kept alive a whole world of the family and culture that he had lost. On account of antisemitism in the Soviet Union, his work with these Jewish themes received heavy pushback, preventing it from ever reaching the level of global recognition that it should have had in his lifetime.

When Linsky first heard Weinberg’s work, she knew immediately that she wanted to create something to it. Linsky felt the best way to honor his artistry and to perhaps restore a small piece of deserved legacy to his name would be to create contemporary dance that brought out the same Jewish and Klezmer influences that he kept alive in his music.

Created with the support of the Jewish Arts Collaborative & Combined Jewish Philanthropies Community Creative Fellowship

Capstone Project Dance Film, “Z”L”:

In the summer of 2023, we continued this research on Weinberg through ZACHOR’s 2023 Teen Intensive. Throughout this free, week-long summer program, the cohort of students worked collaboratively to build choreography for dance film based on their research, discussions and reflections. The students chose to bring to life Movement II of Weinberg’s Cello Concertino.

ZACHOR’s Teen Intensive is made possible by the generous support of The Beker Foundation.