Music of Remembrance Premieres
The Dialogue of Memories
in Three-City U.S. Tour
Seattle • May 17
San Francisco • May 20
Chicago • May 23-24
Music of Remembrance (MOR) presents the world premiere of The Dialogue of Memories, a new opera by composer Tom Cipullo and acclaimed Chicago Tribune journalist Howard Reich, on a three-city U.S. tour this May. The work marks the first time Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wieselis portrayed as a character in an opera, drawing on Reich’s real-life friendship with Wiesel and his investigation into his mother’s long-hidden past. Performances take place at Benaroya Hall in Seattle (May 17), Presidio Theatre in San Francisco (May 20), and the Studebaker Theater in Chicago (May 23-24). The opera opens with Reich’s line, “I suffer from an event I have not even experienced.” When his mother Sonia’s trauma from the Holocaust resurfaces late in life, Reich is drawn into a history his family had long avoided. As he begins to uncover his mother’s past, Reich forms an unexpected bond with Wiesel, who appears throughout the opera as a guiding presence. As in life, Wiesel challenges Reich to ask questions, tell his mother’s story, and reckon with what he has inherited – and what he chooses to do with it. In the final moments of the work, Wiesel’s message is direct: “We are ordered to hope.” “When I published my mother’s story, my identity as the son of Holocaust survivors was revealed on the front page of the Chicago Tribune,” said journalist Howard Reich. “This was a secret I’d been urged to keep my entire life. My friendship with Elie Wiesel changed how I understood my family’s silence – and my own responsibility to break it.” The premiere comes as the world marks the 10th anniversary of Elie Wiesel’s passing. The last generation of Holocaust survivors is fading, and firsthand testimony is giving way to accounts passed down across generations. “Elie Wiesel spent his life insisting that these stories be told,” said MOR Artistic Director Mina Miller. “Bringing him to the stage now, ten years after his death, raises the question of who carries that responsibility forward.” That sense of inheritance extends into Cipullo’s score, which weaves echoes of Schumann, Gershwin, and Tchaikovsky into his own contemporary musical language. The opera unfolds in episodic scenes that move between past and present as Reich pieces together his mother’s history. For nearly three decades, MOR has excavated long-silenced voices while expanding the repertory with commissions that confront injustice through music. The Dialogue of Memories brings those strands together, transforming a deeply personal story drawn from Reich’s own life into a new opera. Audiences in Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago can now experience Reich’s story – a reflection on legacies still unfolding in families around the world. |
| The Dialogue of Memories World Premiere Tour • Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago Composer: Tom Cipullo Librettist: Howard Reich with Tom Cipullo Based on The Art of Inventing Hope: Intimate Conversations with Elie Wiesel Conductor: Alastair Willis Director: Erich Parce Media Design: Peter Crompton Elie Wiesel: Daniel Belcher Sonia Reich: Megan Marino Howard Reich: Dominic Armstrong MOR Chamber Ensemble: Christina Medawar, flute; Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Walter Gray, cello; Cristina Valdes, piano Sunday, May 17, 2026 @ 4:00pm Seattle, Washington Benaroya Hall (200 University Street)Tickets $60; Students $25 (ID required) https://musicofremembrance.org/show-details/memories Wednesday, May 20, 2026 @ 7:30pmSan Francisco, CaliforniaPresidio Theatre (99 Moraga Avenue)Tickets $38–71 https://musicofremembrance.org/show-details/memoriessf Saturday, May 23, 2026 @ 7:30pmSunday, May 24, 2026 @ 3:00pmChicago, IllinoisStudebaker Theater (Fine Arts Building)Tickets $35–75 https://musicofremembrance.org/show-details/memorieschi |
| About Music of Remembrance Established in 1998, Music of Remembrance (MOR) pays tribute to historic memory and directly confronts challenges to human rights and dignity today. In addition to its work discovering and performing music from the Holocaust, MOR is admired around the world for its leadership in commissioning, having premiered 48 new works by leading composers. This includes varied chamber ensembles, song cycles, choral works, dance music, film scores, musical dramas, and full-length operas – all using art to examine compelling issues in today’s world. MOR’s online concerts, nine albums, three documentary films, and extensive outreach programs extend that impact well beyond the concert hall. MOR’s annual David Tonkonogui Memorial Award welcomes new generations onto this journey, nurturing young musicians who seek to address human rights issues through their art. |
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