ROM Speaks
ARC Ensemble

Six musicians in dark clothing, gathered in a group photograph.

Date

Tuesday, May 27, 2025 19:00

Registration Opens

Monday, Mar 17, 2025 10:00

Location

Level 1,
Currelly Gallery

Admission

ROM Speaks - Public: $36.00 ROM Speaks - Member: $32.40

Audience

Adults

About

Continuing their ground-breaking series Music In Exile, and coinciding with ROM’s presentation of the unprecedented exhibition, Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.The Royal Conservatory’s Grammy-nominated ARC Ensemble performs the works of two Jewish musicians whose lives remain closely associated with Auschwitz: the brilliant young Czech composer Pavel Haas, who was murdered in the camp in 1944, and the Polish-born Szymon Laks, who conducted the Auschwitz men’s orchestra, survived the war, and returned to Paris, his adoptive home.

Pavel Haas was born in Brno, studied in Leoš Janáček’s school of composition and is noted for his song cycles and string quartets. He was deported to Terezín concentration camp in 1941, and then was moved to Auschwitz in 1944, where he was murdered. His second string quartet “Music from the Monkey Mountains” remains one of his most resonant works.

Szymon Laks was deported to Auschwitz in July 1942, where he was made head of the camp's men's orchestra. He survived Auschwitz, and was transferred to Kaufering 11, a sub camp of Dachau, in 1944. In late April 1945, the guards marched the prisoners out of the camp, but fled soon afterwards. Laks made his way back to Paris where, two years later, he became a French citizen.

The evening’s program features Haas’s ebullient string quartet “Music from the Monkey Mountains” and Laks’s Quintet for piano and strings, based on Polish folk songs.

A reception, including access to the special exhibition Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away., will follow the concert.

Performers

Six musicians in dark clothing, gathered in a group photograph.
ARC Ensemble

Comprised of senior faculty of The Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School, with special guests drawn from the organization’s most accomplished students and alumni, the ARC Ensemble’s core group consists of piano, string quartet, and clarinet with additional disciplines as repertoire demands. The ARC Ensemble has collaborated with a range of artists, and their repertoire is largely dedicated to music suppressed and marginalized under the 20th century’s repressive regimes.

Simon Wynberg
Simon Wynberg

Edinburgh-born Simon Wynberg grew up in South Africa, and then moved to London, where he earned a musicology degree at Goldsmiths’ College. During the 1980s he researched and edited an extensive repertoire of guitar music for several publishing houses – The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians describes him as “not only a virtuoso performer of distinction but one of the guitar’s foremost scholars.” Simon’s many recordings (on Chandos, ASV, Hyperion, Narada, Stradivari, Vox and Naxos) have received glowing reviews as well as accolades that include a Penguin Rosette, Gramophone Critics’ Choice and Diapason Award. Simon moved to Toronto in the early 1990s. His administrative, practical and musicological experience led to his appointment as the Artistic Director of The Royal Conservatory’s ARC Ensemble, a project initiated by the Conservatory’s CEO, Dr Peter Simon. Since its Music Reborn (2003) and Music in Exile (2006) series in Toronto, the ARC Ensemble has established an international reputation because of its pioneering work in the research, performance and recording of music marginalized and forgotten as a result of political suppression.

Royal Ontario Museum Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. Bloor Street Entrance.
Royal Conservatory of Music

The Royal Conservatory is one of the largest and most respected music education institutions in the world, providing the definitive standard of excellence in curriculum design, assessment, performance training, teacher certification, and arts-based social programs. Their 135-year old Certificate Program is used today by over 30,000 teachers to support 500,000 students across North America. The Royal Conservatory has also expanded into programs for early childhood development, teaching in public schools, and is Canada’s foremost training authority for professional musicians.