Sound & Sense: Jewish Music @ York - Lenka Lichtenberg’s Thieves of Dreams

The Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies and the Department of Music in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design are proud to present 2023 Juno Award winner Lenka Lichtenberg and her deeply personal magnum opus Thieves of Dreams. The project is based on recently discovered poems written by her grandmother Hana in the years 1942-1945 while she was imprisoned in Theresienstadt, a WWII concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. The album, released in May 2022, has gone on to garner enthusiastic responses worldwide — including the Juno win and two Canadian Folk Music Award nominations.

In an immersive, multi-media performance, Hana’s powerful poems of love, relationships, dreams of far-away places, hope and faith come to life through a gripping narrative built on the music from the album, spoken word and storytelling, archival footage, sand art and videos. The show’s music ranges from multi-part a cappella compositions to chamber music and jazz, with songs and poems in their English translations. Touring in Europe in June 2023 and heading to Brazil and Argentina in the fall of 2023, Lenka, York University alumni (MFA, Ethnomusicology) is excited to share her work with the York University community. FREE ADMISSION