Black Oak Ensemble
& Kevin Lahvic

The Black Oak Ensemble consists of violinist Desirée Ruhstrat and cellist David Cunliffe, members of the GRAMMY-nominated Lincoln Trio, and violist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli, a founding member of the ground-breaking, GRAMMY-nominated Spektral Quartet. Their program will consist of music by French composers and works from their newest CD SILENCED VOICES.

Aurélien's mother, a history teacher who comes from a Sephardic family, devoted her life to bringing awareness to the Holocaust. One of her proudest endeavors was bringing students every year on a teaching voyage to Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Terezin.

In the spring of 2016, Desirée and David came back from Budapest, Hungary with string trios they had found in a local shop—these pieces were among them. These works are fantastic works of art and, through their darkness, are incredibly human and ultimately uplifting. That such music could be written in these conditions is a testament to the resilience and faith of these artists.

The ensemble’s hope is for this project to speak for those who were so brutally silenced during the Pogroms, the Exiles, and the Shoah. Ordinary people suffered, artists suffered, and their voices needed to be heard.