This is the sound of
Six million songs and dreams
Six million questions
Six million answers
And six million reasons for being a Jew
– Gloria Parnas Tetewsky
When Gloria Parnas went to elementary school in 1930s St. Louis, she was the only Jew in the school. And when she started kindergarten, she was accused of killing Jesus. That is something she never forgot, especially now, nearly a century later in Buffalo, where she, Gloria Tetewsky, is preparing for the performance of the cantata she wrote decades ago about the Holocaust for the Sisterhood of Temple Beth El, and this month to be presented, newly orchestrated and arranged, at Temple Beth Zion for the beloved Stained Glass Concert Series Sunday, March 29.
The Valley of Silence: Search for Six Million is the cantata that Mrs. Tetewsky wrote in the 1970s, both the words and music for piano, as a response to the cruelty and inhumanity of the Holocaust.
“When I read Elie Weisel’s book Night many years ago, I felt that I had to write something because of the immense sadness of the story. But it was also important that we learn something from it. We must value our humanity and frame this knowledge around freedom to live our lives as decent human beings,” she said. “In certain sections of the work, I therefore took phrases from the liturgy and set them to music. I did this to bring out the fact that life is a very precious gift. We must recognize the sacredness of our life and the sacredness of time.”
Gloria earned a bachelor’s degree in music at the Chicago Music College and also attended Washington University Art School. She moved to Buffalo in 1953 after meeting Hyman Tetewsky, MD. They affiliated first with Temple Beth El, and then as congregations have closed and merged over the years, she is now a member of Congregation Shir Shalom. She still plays piano and has a baby grand piano in her senior living apartment.
By the 1970s, Gloria was an active member of Beth El’s Sisterhood.
“At the time, no one was talking about the Holocaust that much. In 1973, the Sisterhood at Temple Beth El put me in charge of its Jewish Music Month. I decided to write this cantata for Holocaust commemoration, which I called Valley of Silence: Search for Six Million,” Gloria said. What’s new now is that Moshe Shulman has orchestrated it because it was originally written for piano and two voices – baritone, and soprano, plus a narrator.”
Russian-born Israeli American composer and multi-instrumentalist Moshe Shulman is a 2015 Fromm Music Foundation Commission recipient from Harvard University and winner of the 2018 American Prize in Composition, with international honors including the International Jurgenson Competition in Moscow. A violinist, violist, bandoneon player, and leader of the Buffalo Tango Orkestra, his music has been performed worldwide by ensembles such as the Arditti Quartet and the Brasilia National Symphony, bringing a global artistic voice to our Western New York community.
In addition, one of the many extraordinary elements of the March 29 Concert is that Chicago-based Cantor Steven Stoehr, whose father was a Holocaust Survivor, will sing, and will also be bringing a special musical instrument, known as a Violin of Hope, which was given to him by a descendant of Romani victims of the Holocaust. It will be played in Buffalo by Antoine Lefebvre during the concert. By doing this, Cantor Stoehr is enabling the presentation of the music ABOUT what happened, with an instrument which was right there WHERE and WHEN it happened—The Holocaust in 1930s and 40s Europe.
This Stained Glass concert will also feature a full 22-piece orchestra including Buffalo Philharmonic musicians Antoine Lefebvre and oboist Anna Mattix. Vocals will be sung by Temple Beth Zion’s Cantor Susan Lewis-Friedman alongside the Jewish Community Center’s Cantor Mark Horowitz, and Cantor Stoehr, all performing beneath Temple Beth Zion’s renowned stained-glass masterpiece at 805 Delaware Avenue, created by internationally celebrated artist Ben Shahn.
Mrs. Tetewsky is looking forward to the March 29 cantata performance with the singers, and this time, unlike in 1973, accompanied by a full orchestra. She also wants to express her gratitude to all of the people who made this event possible. “As Jews we want to assert our humanity. They took everything away from us, but they couldn’t take our humanity, which gives us freedom to be an ethical moral person, using our freedom in the right way.”
May we all continue to hold onto this humanitarian vision and hope.
Admission to the Stained Glass Concert operates on a Pay-What-You-Wish basis to ensure accessibility for the entire community. Tickets are available at tbz.org/stainedglass.
Funding is made possible through Arts Services Inc.’s Creative Impact Fund thanks to a New York State Senate Initiative supported by the NYS Legislature and the Office of the Governor and administered by the New York State Council on the Arts.
Ellen Goldstein contributed this article to Buffalo Jewish Federation’s weekly Spotlight.
