Yom Limmud 2022

Over the past two years, Sam has worked on exploring history via young voices through his work with the Sydney Children’s Choir, which commissioned him to compose a suite of choral works. The pieces explored the universal themes of remembrance, coexistence, love, loss and peace. Each piece has a specific connection to the Holocaust and Sydney's Jewish community. Sam will share his deeply personal compositional journey and process of writing his works, which included the uncovering of an undiscovered family artefact from pre-war Germany in the Jewish Museum’s archives. This gave him the chance to connect to his great-grandmother, whom he never had the chance to meet, for the first time through her poetry, which Sam then set to song. Sam will discuss other inspirations behind the works (spoiler alert: Eddie Jaku’s book is one of them!), and working with the Sydney Children’s Choir and the Sydney Jewish Museum to bring these works to life.