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About The Program:
The concerts will showcase the voice and life-story of Cantor David S. Wisnia, a survivor of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. As a Polish youth, Wisnia sang in the famed Tlumacke Synagogue with renown Cantors Gershon Serota and Moshe Kussovitsky. He continued to use his incredible vocal talent during World War II and his internment in Auschwitz, leading to his ultimate survival. Wisnia’s broad-ranging repertoire includes liturgy, Yiddish show tunes, and Israeli music, connecting Poland’s Jewish musical past with the country’s current emerging moment of Jewish renewal. (Read more about David Wisnia’s story and his recently published memoir “One Voice Two Lives” at www.onevoicetwolives.com)

David Wisnia’s grandson, pianist & singer-songwriter Avi Wisnia, will accompany his grandfather during the concerts as well as perform his own original music, with influences ranging from American Folk to Brazilian Jazz to contemporary Jewish music, keeping the Jewish musical tradition alive, from generation to generation. (Read more about Avi Wisnia’s music and listen to songs at www.aviwisnia.com)

During the program, the Wisnias will also recount their recent travels to Poland: performing together in Warsaw, teaching a new generation of Jews at Beit Warszawa, and revisiting the infamous death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau where David Wisnia was a prisoner for nearly 3 years.
(Read more about the Wisnias’ travels in Poland at www.mypolishwisnia.com)

Additional musical support at the performances will be provided by instrumentalists from the UCLA undergraduate jazz program and the Thelonious Monk Institute.