20th May 2022 – Shabbat is almost here
We will enjoy Lenka Lichtenberg’s music as well as her conversation about her latest project, the meaningful and ambitious “Thieves of Dreams”.
Hello, I hope you are well. Today I bring you a very special edition of MBS. This is the first time we are having a conversation face to face with the artist! The delightful singer and composer Lenka Lichtenberg accepted to record an interview about her latest work, “Thieves of Dreams”, consisting of poems set to music written by her grandmother Anna Hana Friesová while she was in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
Continue reading. Below you also have the video of the conversation we had last Wednesday, as well as the first video clip of the album, with the music of the opening piece, Kam jsme to zašli (What is this place?). The video clip consists of a fascinating sequence of creating drawings with sand. Don’t miss the interview and the videoclip.
Then, please, spread the word.
 |
Share this with a friend, right from here |
About Lenka Lichtenberg
Lenka has provided this portrait, made by Bo HuangI have known Lenka, not in person, but her work, for quite a few years. Her album Embrace was favorite of the month of October 2013 in the radio program Mundofonías, that I do with Juan Antonio Vázquez.
Since then we have been hearing from her regularly and last month Daniel Rosenberg told me about this new work. He was very excited about it and it wasn’t hard for him to convince me that it was worthwhile. But who is Lenka? I will allow myself to use her own words to talk about her biography, which I take from her website:
“Lenka Lichtenberg is a Canadian musician, composer, and producer who draws on the rich, intercultural Toronto soundscapes she has long immersed herself in, to create her own unique global sound. With her striking and crystalline voice leading the way, the Canadian Folk Music and International Independent Music Award winner aspires to build bridges among cultures and transcend the artificial boundaries between folk, jazz and world music in a passionate and often deeply spiritual celebration of her roots.
Since relocating to Toronto after spending her early days as a notable child star in her native Prague, the multilingual vocalist has been a prolific collaborator and has also released 7 albums of her own. Her two most recent outings were released worldwide on the U.K.’s ARC Music label. Lenka’s latest project is ‘The Thieves of Dreams,’ based on poems she recently unearthed that were written by her grandmother while she was being held in the Theresienstadt concentration camp during World War 2.”
In the interview below, Lenka herself explains how she found her grandmother’s poems and the enormous meaning they have had for her. In addition, she shares some very personal and deep reflections, about issues such as the volatility of things, change, appearances or the ability to overcome. Don’t miss it!
In the album there is a voice recording of Lenka’s mother, Jana Renée Friesová, explaining how the family had to leave forcibly Josefov, until then, a place of happiness. There are several Josefov in Czechia but I think this is the place, near Jaromer, near Hradec Králové. Picture from Google Maps Street View. There is the Josefov Fortress and many things around called Josefov something.
About “Thieves of Dreams / Zloději snů -Songs of Theresienstadt’s Secret Poetess / Písně tajemné básnířky Terezína”
The album was released in May 6, 2022. It has been produced by Lenka and it is available to buy in Bandcamp.
The songs are based on poetry written by Anna Hana Friesová, Lenka’s maternal grandmother, in Theresienstadt (1942-1945). The music has been composed by Lenka and some other female composers. In the interview below she explains how she selected the composers. They are Milli Janatková, Rachel Cohen (who is Lenka’s daughter), Jessica Hana Deutsch, Shy-Anne Hovorka, Zita Petrak and Lorie Wolf. You can find more details on Lenka’s website.
In the booklet of the album, Lenka explains brieftly about the history of her family, for us to understand the sequence of events that made her grandmother and her mother to be taken to Terezín and be liberated by the Soviet Red Army on May 8, 1945. Her grandfather did not survive. He was executed in a gas chamber on October 10, 1944. I won’t explain more because I’d rather you read it in the booklet of the disc. I will just take a little part from Lenka’s own life experiences, which I find particularly meaningful:
“Neither my mother nor my grandmother told me what happened to them during the war. In fact, I only learned that I was Jewish at the age of nine when I was invited to perform at the Prague Jewish Community Centre, and my mother finally told me about our heritage. She saw being Jewish as a burden, a risk of becoming a victim of antisemitism.
For me, embracing my family’s heritage was, at first, an act of defiance, and then a way of loving and honouring my roots through learning, creating, and sharing my Czech, Yiddish and cantorial music.”
About the piece and the videoclip Kam jsme to zašli? / What is this place?
This is the first song of the album. In the interview Lenka explains why she decided to put it the first, as well as how she decided to use sand art for the videoclip. The sand artist is Zhenya Lopatnik, who is also a musician and a Jewish Educator. The composer of the piece has been Rachel Cohen, Lenka’s daughter.
And of course, the lyrics are by Anna Hana Friesová:
Where have we come to?
What happened to the way
you used to look at me?
and eternally redeemed.
In the darkest of nights
remember the sun!Love is the only spring
through which our life is born
Cherish your life
and regret none of it.
We’re eternally lost
and eternally redeemed.
In the darkest of nights
remember the sun!
Click the picture to watch the conversation:
Click the picture to listen to Kam jsme to zašli? / What is this place?, composed by Rachel Cohen, with arrangements by Lenka Lichtenberg and the poem by Anna Hana Friesová and watch the sand art made by Zhenya Lopatnik: