Cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper on the "Music of Survival" Concert ft. Weinberg, Korngold, and Rovner

An upcoming concert at Carnegie Hall will celebrate the music of holocaust survivors and their perseverance

On February 24 at 8 PM (ET), the New York City Opera will present a program entitled "Music of Survival: Works by Weinberg, Korngold, and Rovner" at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium.

The program begins with two rarely heard gems from Holocaust survivors Weinberg and Korngold: the New York premiere of Weinberg's Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 52, and Korngold's Cello Concerto in C Major — both performed by cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper.

After intermission, the program continues with the U.S. premiere of Gennady Rovner's Metamorphosis Symphony, echoing that same enduring spirit for the 21st century.

Conducted by Constantine Orbelian, the New York City Opera Orchestra will also be joined by soprano Elizaveta Ulakhovich.

We caught up with cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper to learn more about these works and the lives that inspired them.

Tell us about your upcoming concert with the New York City Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on February 24th.

It is all very exciting. Together with Maestro Constantine Orbelian, I am performing two absolute gems of the 20th century — the gorgeous, not often-played concerto by Erich Korngold and the even less-played masterpiece, Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra by Mieczyslaw Weinberg. In fact, this will be the NY premiere of Weinberg's work. They are both so beautiful but in such different ways. Of course, Korngold is known to most audiences as primarily a film composer, and in fact this work WAS written as part of the central plot to a wonderful Bette Davis movie called Deception, but what is sometimes forgotten is that before the war, Korngold was considered one of Europe's finest concert composers. The sheer mastery of his writing is truly awesome and the harmonic language that he uses — that Viennese post-Mahler/Schoenberg/Zemlinsky romantic chromaticism is endlessly fascinating and just so touching. For those fans of such works as Pierrot's Tanzlied and Marietta's Lied, the Cello Concerto will definitely speak to them.

Weinberg's Fantasy, in my opinion, is destined to become a staple of the Cello repertoire. His language, as is often pointed out, does share a sort of genetic resemblance to Shostakovich, but all of his works also heartbreakingly and powerfully portray where he came from(his background and rather tragic life). You can always hear the plaintive Jewish song and idiom, plus the Polish folk music. Despite the tragedy that runs through his works, I find that there is ALWAYS, underneath it all, a sense of beauty, a love of life-, and almost a very quiet optimism and hope. It is a mixture that I think is entirely unique to Weinberg and what in the end, will allow for his music to become part of the pantheon of the greats in years to come.

The concert is entitled “Music of Survival: Works by Weinberg, Korngold, and Rovner,” presenting music from Holocaust survivors. What does this program mean to you personally?

I should point out that Rovner is NOT a Holocaust survivor! He is very much alive! But, he does come from a Jewish background and has his own unique story to tell. As a converted Jew, married to the youngest son of Holocaust survivors, having 3 children whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors, and currently making my home in Tel Aviv, Israel, this is a subject very close to my heart and soul. I have to admit that when I first converted, the Holocaust seemed very far away, something from the distant past. However, with the terrifying rise of anti-Semitism in the world today, having lived through October 7th, it does not seem so far away to me anymore at all.

Korngold and Weinberg survived, while so many others did not. Because they are such great composers, their music reflects their lives and their time in history and I think this is a big part of what makes their music so very poignant. Weinberg's themes are always reaching out and folding in on themselves, played over and over again, but always with different harmonies and orchestration beneath and around them — almost as though they are trying to find a way to reach out beyond the trauma, but always coming back in as it is inescapable. He never leaves his roots: the themes are almost always Jewish in nature or harken to Polish folk music. He could not help but to always pay tribute to the lives and life that were forever lost. They are beautiful themes, but as stated before, even though often tragic they are in the end, imbued with just that bit of gleam of hope and love that gives it all a spiritual and aural glow. I find Korngold's way of dealing with his trauma equally fascinating. By all accounts, as a youth and young man, he was an optimistic, sweet, kind, and happy soul. His harmonic language and aesthetic and soul come from a rarefied, magical, and romantic Vienna that existed before the War when Vienna was the cultural center and treasure of Europe. The War destroyed all of that and any illusions that Korngold may have held about the basic civility and humanity of mankind. Rather than reacting by writing music that reflected this disillusionment, he chose to stay in the language of his youth, to continue to live in it, almost as though he could bring the feel, the smell of that WORLD back to all of us through his music. Given what is going on in the world today, these are all feelings I can understand. I think all of us can.

What are you most looking forward to in this concert?

To be able to bring these masterpieces to THAT stage with such great musicians and wonderful colleagues is a dream. I think whenever I play in Carnegie Hall, my husband really is very proud and happy for me, but what I think he REALLY likes about it most is that he gets to tell that joke OVER and OVER again. "How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice practice practice."

An album of these two works, as well as the Weinberg Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, will be released in the near future on the Delos label. Who did you record it with and when will it be released?

I am so blessed! I recorded this incredible repertoire with the truly amazing in every way and most wonderful Maestro Constantine Orbelian and the great Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra in Lithuania where he is Music Director. He has a long history with Delos and as the child of survivors himself, he has a very personal connection to the project. There is also something incredibly special about working with a fine orchestra in that part of the world. There is a long history of great music-making and well, they have also been caught in the crosshairs of so many of these global upheavals that have left such devastation. For better or worse, they have an intrinsic understanding of this music and it is deeply ingrained in their blood. We also filmed a documentary about this project. They just sent us the final version and I am very happy to say that we are beyond thrilled with what they did with it. We are in the midst of sending it to film festivals right now. It will come out in conjunction with the Delos recording.

What have been some of the stepping stones in your career? 

I have had a pretty varied career as I have not only performed as a soloist, but I have been part of various marvelous chamber groups, performed lots of contemporary music, done a fair share of crossover, I teach at Tel Aviv University, I give lectures and I have learned so much from each and every endeavor. Perhaps most importantly, I have been very fortunate in that I have worked with so many incredible colleagues and artists which has allowed me to be able to draw great amounts of inspiration from their energy and talent. Certainly, a turning point in my career was with the great Edna Landau, when we created a consortium of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, and the American Society of Yad Vashem to commission composer Lera Auerbach to write Symphony No. 6 “Vessels of Light.” Scored for cello, chorus, and orchestra, the work commemorates the heroic deeds of Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara who, during World War II in Lithuania, issued between 2,100 and 3,500 life-saving transit visas to Jews. We have been very lucky to be able to have this work performed around the world in such storied venues as the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Prague Radio Orchestra, Carnegie Hall with Maestro Orbelian, and many other places. In fact, there is another upcoming set of concerts of this work coming up in Mexico City in March!

Are there particular mentors or inspirations that shaped who you are today?

I come from a family of musicians, so naturally, my first mentors are my mother and father. They are both beautiful musicians. My mother was born in Tokyo to a famous composer and former singer and became a very fine violinist herself. In fact, when I was born, she was the Concertmaster of the American Symphony. My father is originally from North Carolina and is a fantastic and poetic pianist and I fell in love with the repertoire that he played from as far back as I can remember. My earliest memories are of him practicing, with his great voicing and sensitivity, Ravel, Schubert, Schumann, Bach, Debussy, Scriabin, and Chopin —what can beat that? I have also had incredible teachers. Beginning with my first teacher, Ira Lehn where my first lesson was spent hugging the cello like a bear, through Reine Flachot in Paris, Eleanore Schoenfeld in Los Angeles through my years at Juilliard with Joel Krosnick, and studying chamber music with the greats there and at the Marlboro Music Festival with the likes of and forever loved, Robert Mann, David Soyer, and many others.

What are your aspirations as a musician in the coming years?

I am having such a glorious adventure. I love playing, discovering and interpreting music, I love performing and bringing works to life. I hope to keep doing what I do now: bringing fabulous music and art to others and hopefully inspire that divine feeling of communication between souls and people that only music can. I hope to keep working on projects that have personal meaning to me like this one we are doing in Carnegie with Weinberg and Korngold. I hope to continue to be part of bringing new works to the stage. For example, I have two world premiere cello concertos coming up in the next months written, (well, one is written, one is being written now) by the ingenious composers Avner Dorman and Uri Brenner. I hope that somehow, I am able to continue to work with such marvelous colleagues and to live and dream in this world of great music.