Who Wants Love Songs? Songs of exile by Franz Waxman performed at Old Stone House November 16

Franz Waxman was a German-born, Jewish-American composer, known primarily for his work in film, composing scores for The Bride of Frankenstein, Rebecca and Rear Window. He also composed concert works, including the oratorio Joshua (1959), and The Song of Terezin (1965) a work for orchestra, chorus, and childrens chorus based upon poetry written by children in the Theresienstadt concentration camp during World War II. Waxman founded the Los Angeles Music Festival in 1947 with which he conducted a number of West Coast premieres by fellow film composers, and concert composers alike.

This evening will tell the story of Waxmans creative path, starting with the European pre-war music communities of Germany and France, facing the upheavals of WW II, then onto the west Coast of the US and the movies. Waxmans music will be performed alsongside his contemporaries, including Poulenc and Spolianski, who are woven musically into the program as his story unfolds as a continuous piece of story telling and song.