ILLUMINATIONS Season to Bring World Premieres to Music of Remembrance
The Seattle ensemble will also stage Jake Heggie's Camille Claudel: Into the Fire in Seattle and San Francisco.
MOR has announced its 2026/27 season, Illuminations: Music for Our Shared Humanity. These concerts place disparate compositions into conversation with one another, exploring the personal stories behind headlines and history.
Across four programs, MOR's season includes commissioned world premieres from Lori Laitman and Afghan composer Milad Yousufi, new choreography by Spectrum Dance Theater's Donald Byrd, and the Seattle premiere of Jake Heggie's acclaimed theatrical song cycle Camille Claudel: Into the Fire. These stories trace journeys across continents and generations, from refugees crossing dangerous seas to Afghan women reclaiming their voices, with music that speaks powerfully to the present moment.
"Every season begins with the same questions: which stories demand our attention right now, and how can music reveal the threads that connect these stories to one another – and to us?" said Artistic Director Mina Miller. "While the answers shift through the years, our responsibility does not. Every commission becomes part of a living repertoire that carries these stories forward – not as a historical record, but as something future generations can continue to perform, question, and learn from."
Journeys
November 1, 2026 • Benaroya Hall in Seattle
MOR opens the season with Journeys, a program built around narratives of displacement and hope. Aligned with the composer's 90th birthday, Steve Reich's Different Trains layers the sounds of his childhood cross-country trips in America with echoes of the trains that carried European children toward a very different fate. MOR commission Stormy Seas, by Iranian American composer Sahba Aminikia, tells the true stories of five child refugees who crossed dangerous waters in search of safety in new lands. The program also includes songs from We Go On, Oswego, honoring women who found refuge in America's only World War II refugee camp, performed by mezzo-soprano Lily Bogas, and “Lyric” from Black American composer George Walker's Lyric String Quartet, written for the grandmother who survived slavery.
Art From Ashes
January 25, 2027 • Benaroya Hall in Seattle
MOR's annual free community concert honors International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. This year, two of the Pacific Northwest's most prominent groups of young musical talent appear. The Seattle Girls Choir Prime Voci premieres composer Lori Laitman's Bonaco, a new MOR choral commission setting the words of teenage girl prisoners in the Terezín concentration camp, while the Northwest Boychoir performs a new choral arrangement of haunting songs by composer Viktor Ullmann, written in Terezín before he was sent to his death in Auschwitz. Soprano Madeline Ross and the MOR Chamber Ensemble perform works by other composers from across Nazi-controlled Europe who perished in the Holocaust.
Resilience
March 14, 2027 • Benaroya Hall in Seattle
Two world premieres anchor Resilience. Afghan-born composer Milad Yousufi debuts a new work, written for soprano Vanessa Isiguen and giving voice to the lived experiences of Afghan women, while Donald Byrd and Spectrum Dance Theater premiere new choreography to Erwin Schulhoff's Five Pieces for String Quartet. Armenian American composer Mary Kouyoumdjian's Boy and a Makeshift Toy, from her Children of Conflict series, captures the realities of children growing up amid the devastation of war.
Women in the Shadows
May 16, 2026 • Benaroya Hall in Seattle
May 23, 2026 • Presidio Theatre in San Francisco
Closing the season, Women in the Shadows is devoted to female artists whose talents outstripped their renown. The centerpiece is Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's theatrical song cycle Camille Claudel: Into the Fire, reclaiming the voice of the brilliant French sculptor too often remembered only as Auguste Rodin's muse. Mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz, praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for performances that are "heartrending, musically resplendent," takes on the title role. Works by Florence Price, Vítězslava Kaprálová, Rebecca Clarke, Lili Boulanger, and Iranian American composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh further explore the artistic legacies of women whose work deserves renewed recognition.
About Music of Remembrance
Established in 1998, Music of Remembrance (MOR) pays tribute to historic memory and directly confronts challenges to human rights and dignity today. In addition to its work discovering and performing music from the Holocaust, MOR is admired around the world for its leadership in commissioning, having premiered 50 new works by leading composers as of its 2025/26 season. This includes varied chamber ensembles, song cycles, choral works, dance music, film scores, musical dramas, and full-length operas – all using art to examine compelling issues in today's world. MOR's nine albums, three documentary films, and extensive outreach programs extend that impact well beyond the concert hall.
Photo Credit: Nick Klein
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Freak The Mighty Seattle Repertory Theatre (7/30-9/06) |
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Leni's Last Lament Intiman Theatre (10/09-10/18) PHOTOS |
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Complemento Latitude Theatre (8/01-8/30) |
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Come From Away Lakewood Playhouse (6/04-6/20) |
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PYG or the mis-edumacation of Dorian Belle ArtsWest (6/10-7/03) |
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Come From Away Village Theatre (11/10-12/20) |
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disPLACE Theatre Off Jackson (8/21-8/22) |
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Jack Johnson at Gorge Amphitheatre Gorge Amphitheatre (9/26-9/26) |
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FOOLISH MORTALS: A Haunted Mansion Burlesque Cabaret The Triple Door Theatre (9/26-9/26) |