How a Southwestern Middle School teacher brought compositions from the Holocaust to her choir

All about Tuesday night’s premiere. Plus, Lafayette man arrested after driving to D.C. to fight for Ukraine. Purdue ready to drop masks in classrooms. And your spelling bee w-i-n-n-e-r

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The Southwestern Middle School choir. (Photo: Camden Ritchie)

As Camden Ritchie contemplated how to approach the Gedalyah Engel Education Award – named for the founder of the Greater Lafayette Holocaust Remembrance Conference and meant to teach students about standing up for the vulnerable – she found some unlikely inspiration in her search for a project for her music students at Southwestern Middle School.

She found Francesco Lotoro through a series of national interviews, including an extended “60 Minutes” piece, about his work in Italy to preserve the songs and compositions created amid the horrors of Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

Lotoro had scoured attics of Holocaust survivors and descendants to arrange and record some 400 works, including an expansive box set titled, “Encyclopedia of Music Composed in Concentration Camps.”

Ritchie, who has taught music at Southwestern for five years, reached out from Lafayette to see whether there was something her students at the Tippecanoe School Corp. middle school could do to interpret some of Lotoro’s finds.

“If it weren't for distance teaching during the COVID shutdown, I don't think I would have been brave enough or knowledgeable enough to invite the maestro to a Zoom meeting,” Ritchie said this week.

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But she did. And Tuesday night, the Southwestern Middle School choirs will present “Voices of the Holocaust,” a free concert in Lafayette, featuring works composed during the Holocaust, collected by Lotoro, arranged by Jason Ausban and funded through a $2,000 grant.

Question: The concert came from the Engel Award. Have you been involved with the Greater Lafayette Holocaust Remembrance Conference in the past? Or how did you find out about the opportunity?

Camden Ritchie: This is my very first interaction with the Greater Lafayette Holocaust Remembrance Conference.  I was inspired by their grant process and wanted to take the time to find an authentic way to incorporate learning about the Holocaust into my choir classrooms.  Additionally, having a special goal inspires the kids and makes the entire process more meaningful.