An opera about the Holocaust will be performed in November with the National Philharmonic Orchestra, thanks to a chance meeting between the composer and philharmonic conductor at Ingleside at King Farm.
Composer Janice Harmer and orchestra conductor Piotr Gajewski met through their parents, who both live at the continuing care retirement community in Rockville.
In appreciation, Hamer will speak at the retirement community and explain the story of her opera, Lost Childhood, this Sunday at 2 p.m.
Lost Childhood is based on a Holocaust memoir and takes place in both 1939 Lvov, Poland, and 1993 in New York. It will be performed at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda on Nov. 9, the 75th anniversary of Krisallnacht.
The author of the memoir is Yehuda Nir, who was born in 1930 and whose father was killed by German soldiers when he was only 9 years old.
The opera portrays a confrontation between a postwar German and a Jewish Holocaust survivor.
Sunday’s event is free and open to the public.
