Bente Kahan – vocals, guitar
Ronen Nissan
Leopoldinum Orchestra
Programme:
Oy, Lernen
(text and music anonymous)
Ernest Bloch: Nigun
(edited by Christian Danowicz)
Terezín cabaret songs
(edited by Ronen Nissan)
Als ob / As if (lyrics: Leo Strauss, music: anonymous)
Wir reiten auf hölzernen Pferden / We Ride on Wooden Horses (lyrics: Manfred Greifenhagen, music: Martin Roman)
Ich bitte, nicht lachen / Please, Don't Laugh (lyrics: Leo Strauss, music: Imre Kalman)
Theresienstädter Fragen / Question of Terezín (lyrics: Leo Strauss, music: anonymous)
Viktor Ullmann: Variations and Fugues on a Hebrew Song
(edited by Ronen Nissan)
Ilse Weber / Bente Kahan
(edited by Ronen Nissan)
Ein Koffer spricht / Suitcase speaks
Die Kartoffelschälerin / Potato peeler
Brief an mein Kind / Letter to My Child (music by Bente Kahan and Dariusz Świnoga )
Polentransport / Transport to Poland
Tadeusz Różewicz: Poems written after World War II
(music by Bente Kahan, English translation by Joanna Trzeciak, edited by Dariusz Świnoga)
In the Middle of Life
Survivor
Bente Kahan is an actress, performer and musician of Jewish origin. Born in Oslo, she studied acting in Tel Aviv and New York. Her first artistic contracts were with Habima, the Israeli national theatre, and the National Theatre of Norway. Bente’s father was a rabbi from Romania who survived Auschwitz, and her mother managed to flee to Sweden. Her roots inspired her to explore Judaism and the Holocaust. As an author of one-woman shows and musical concerts, she brings Yiddish, Hebrew and Ladino to life on stage. Bente founded Dybbuk, a theatre in Norway, introducing successful projects such as Yiddishkayt, Farewell Cracow, Voices from Theresienstadt and Home.
Bente Kahan now lives in Wrocław, having been invited to act as the Director of the Centre for Jewish Culture and Education. In 2006, she established a foundation striving for mutual respect and human rights from the perspective of the Holocaust. Among the foundation’s great achievements was the reconstruction of the only surviving synagogue in Wrocław, completed in 2010. Bente’s activities earned her the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, and the Wrocław Mayor’s Award.
