Hello Gold Mountain – A Chamber Orchestral Piece Remembering the Shanghai Jewish Ghetto

Posted: September 20th, 2021 | No Comments »

Just before Covid-19 hit, at the invitation of the Chinese mucisian Wu Fei, I put together a small privately published book entitled The Port of Last Resort and aiming to show through pictures and anecdotes the history of the Shanghai Jewish Ghetto and the European Jewish refugees who lived there from the late 1930s till Shanghai’s liberation in 1945 (and stayed somewhat longer in many cases).

The short book supports Hello Gold Mountain, an original composition by Wu Fei for chamber orchestra, performed by chatterbird ensemble, featuring Wu Fei on guzheng and Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz (Silk Road Ensemble) on oud — the traditional Chinese and Jewish plucked string instruments respectively. The work premiered at Vanderbilt University’s Ingram Hall in Nashville, TN. More details are here.

Then Covid-19 rather derailed plans. However, hopefully there will be more performances now, included one in Washington DC next year.

My thanks also to Bill Lascher for sharing the previously unpublished photographs of the ghetto taken by his relative the Jewish-American journalist Melville Jacoby (there is a book of all his China/HK/Macao photographs in the works at the moment). Do watch out for posts on future performances…

Wu Fei published a few pics of the small book which i’m reposting here….

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