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Siskiyou Singers of Ashland, Oregon, presented the world premiere of I’lana Cotton’s Butterfly at its 2019 spring concert in April. The choir commissioned the five-minute composition for mixed chorus and piano as a tribute to Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat stationed in Lithuania at the dawn of World War II. Risking the wrath of his own government as well as his life, Sugihara defiantly approved the visas for thousands of Jews fleeing the Nazis; when his courageous actions became known years later, he was hailed as the “Japanese Schindler.” Butterfly, performed in English, Hebrew, and Japanese, and featuring soloists Anne Huebert, Marilyn Reppert, and Derek Rosenlund (pictured), was conducted by Mark Reppert at the Southern Oregon University Music Recital Hall. The choir will feature the piece during its tour of the Baltic States this summer, including a performance before the Sugihara Memorial at the Holocaust Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania. More information: www.siskiyousingers.org
