Conference Agenda
The Online Program of events for the 2026 AMS Annual Meeting appears below. This program is subject to change. The final program will be published in early November.
Use the "Filter by Track or Type of Session" or "Filter by Session Topic" dropdown to limit results by type. Some of the sessions are also color-coded: purple indicates performances, grey indicates paper forums, and orange indicates sessions which have been organized by one of the regional associations of IMS (ARLAC or IMSEA). (Sessions which are both IMS sessions and performances are only colored orange.)
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Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 1st Sept 2026, 02:59:01am EDT
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Daily Overview |
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Music, Resistance, and World War II Session Chair: Leslie Sprout | |
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Jewish String Musicians Throughout the Holocaust: Two Case Studies in Continuity, Purpose, and Survival Through Music University of Michigan How does a musician express themselves while in captivity? What do we make of stories with radically different interpretations of musical life under persecution? Music in concentration and internment camps during the Holocaust served multiple, and often contradictory, functions, shaping not only what imprisoned musicians composed and performed but also how their legacies have been remembered, distorted, or forgotten. Jewish composer Viktor Ullmann, for example, reflected on his incarceration at the concentration camp Terezín by writing, “I have bloomed in musical growth and not felt myself at all inhibited: by no means did we sit weeping on the banks of the waters of Babylon…” (Lotoro 2021). Such statements have frequently been referenced to support a reassuring narrative in which music in the Holocaust functioned primarily as a source of meaning, psychological survival, and emotional support. This optimistic framing continues to dominate scholarship and public understanding of what audiences and learners are encouraged to remember about music throughout the Holocaust. However, this emphasis on heroic or redemptive narratives risks obscuring experiences in which music was inseparable from coercion, surveillance, and trauma (Wlodarski 2015). After surviving displacement and persecution, for example, Jewish composers Szymon Laks and Hans Gál wrote memoirs describing their experiences during the Holocaust in striking detail. These accounts have been translated into multiple languages and widely circulated for outreach and educational purposes, positioning them among the most preserved testimonial sources for Holocaust-era music-making. Yet, despite their accessibility and historical value, the music and writings of Laks and Gál remain largely absent from both scholarly discourse and performance. This paper focuses on Szymon Laks and Hans Gál, who experienced the Holocaust via different forms of persecution, captivity, and displacement. While Laks composed in Auschwitz under surveillance and threat of death, Gál composed in a Scottish internment camp at his own will, writing music shaped by loss and dislocation yet also emphasizing optimism. Drawing from memoirs, diaries, and other archival materials, this paper foregrounds the individuality of musical experience and resists generalized interpretations that frame Holocaust music exclusively as a positive or redemptive coping mechanism. | |