Shanghai Sonatas Educational Residency

Free of charge, registration required ​​​

Leading up to the November 18th & 19th premiere of Music & Songs of Shanghai Sonatas: A New Musical, Master Players presents the Shanghai Sonatas Educational Residency (SSER), a series of educational events​ promoting the awareness of Asian hate, the Holocaust, and genocide.

We hope you will join us for the many inspiring, free-of-charge educational events offered during SSER, from a curated docufilm series to special multimedia presentations by many world-renowned scholars and historians on topics such as the Shanghai Jewish Ghetto musicians, Chinese traditional music and culture, the Holocaust, WWII and modern Chinese history.

​Docufilm Screening with Professor Sean (Xiang) Gao, creator and composer of Shanghai Sonatas: A New Musical​

In 1979, the Osc​ar-winning documentary film From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China detailed the groundbreaking collaboration between legendary violinist Isaac Stern and the China Central Symphony Society. The events portrayed in the film are both a result of and a catalyst for the growth of Western classical music in China throughout the 20th century. Today, there are millions of classical musicians worldwide who are Chinese or of Chinese descent. During this 90-minute event, UD’s Trustees Distinguished Professor of Music and world-renowned concert violinist Sean (Xiang) Gao, originally from Beijing, will interweave discussion with documentary film clips to tell the story of classical music's journey to becoming a new Chinese tradition and cultural identity. Clips from the new documentary film The Garden Bridge, which follows the development and production of the new UD musical Shanghai Sonatas, will be premiered during this event.

Presentations:

• Sunday, November 6, 2022, 3:00 P.M. in the University of Delaware’s Gore Recital Hall - register here​​​
  

• Tuesday, November 8, 2022, 1:00 P.M. at Newark Senior Center (with pizza!) - register here​
  

• Thursday, November 10, 2022, 5:30 P.M. at Chinese American Community Center (with pizza!) - register here​
  

This exhibition, created by the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, shares a visual history of the Jewish people who fled Austria and Germany in the 1930s and 40s and settled in Shanghai, China, one of the only places in the world that would accept them. In 1941, when the Japanese occupied the city and restricted them to the cramped Hongkou district, thousands of Jewish refugees suddenly found themselves living alongside ten thousand Chinese residents in a ghetto less than one square mile in size. Despite these challenges, they adapted with extraordinary resilience, forging a new, unique culture with warm support from their new Chinese neighbors. Through photographs, quotes, documents and video, this exhibition relates the fascinating story of the Shanghai Jewish Refugees, as seen through their own eyes.

Exhibitions (viewable anytime during building opening hours):

• November 1-12, Kirkwood Library - click here for library hours and information
  

• November 11-19 - Roselle Center for the Arts - viewable during all UD events in Gore Recital Hall and Thompson Theatre
  

​A series of free ​​lectures by German scholar Sophie Fetthauer

Dr. Sophie Fetthauer is a scholar of musicology from the University of Hamburg, Germany, who has researched and authored numerous publications on music and musical life in the Third Reich with a special focus on Jewish musicians in exile in Shanghai during World War II. As part of the University of Delaware’s Shanghai Sonatas Educational Residency, Dr. Fetthauer will share her research through a series of multimedia presentations in November 2022 that will highlight various aspects of life in the Shanghai Jewish Ghetto through the lens of music. The lectures, which will be supplemented by illustrations and musical examples, will each last 60 minutes, plus 30 minutes of discussion. Topics will include options of integration for popular musicians in Shanghai Exile; the Jewish refugees’ relationship to “Chinese Music;” and Jewish Cantors in Shanghai.​​

Presentations:

• Saturday, November 12, 2:00 P.M. at Kirkwood​​​ Library: “Paris of the East” – “Little Vienna”/“Little Berlin”: Options of Integration for Popular Musicians in Shanghai Exile​ - learn more and register here

• Wednesday, November 16, 6:00 P.M. at Delaware Historical Society: "Demarcation and Cooperation: Jewish Cantors in Shanghai Exile" - learn more and register here​
  

​Have you ever wondered how a musical is made? Have you ever wanted to create one yourself? The catchy tunes and riveting dialogue of your favorite musical started as a simple spark of inspiration before going through numerous rounds of revision over many years and reaching the stage you see it on today. In this discussion-style event, the creative force behind the new UD-born musical Shanghai Sonatas will describe the ins and outs of its 5-year development, from conception to production. Join creator & composer Xiang Gao, stage director Chongren Fan, book writer Alan Goodson, lyricist Joyce Hill-Stoner and some Broadway cast members as they share their experiences and field your questions about the labor of love behind Shanghai Sonatas.​

Presentations:

• Wednesday, November 16, 2:00 P.M. at Kirkwood Library - register here​​​​​​​​

​Betty Grebenschikoff is a Holocaust survivor and author of a memoir, Once My Name Was Sara. In 1939, when her peaceful childhood in Berlin, Germany, was shattered by Nazi violence against Jews, Betty's family was forced to flee to China. She grew up in Shanghai where the family tried to make a living under difficult circumstances. During World War II, the Jewish refugees were interned by Japanese authorities in a segregated area of Shanghai, also known as the Shanghai Ghetto. Life became even harder than before. During this event, Betty will tell her extraordinary story, which has informed the development of the new UD musical Shanghai Sonatas. She will also sign copies of her memoir, which will be available for purchase after the event.

Presentations:

• Thursday, November 17, 7​:00 P.M. at Newark High School - register here

• Friday, November 18, 6:30 P.M. in Gore Hall room 103 - register here

Funding for this program has been provided from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and Delaware Humanities as part of the 2021 American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act.​​

Master Players Concert Series is supported, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The Division promotes Delaware arts events on www.DelawareScene.com.​

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