Social Scene

Embassy Series Presents Music of the Vilna Ghetto Experience

By Mary Bird • October 19, 2011 0 933

Pianist Edvinas Minkstimas, Deputy Foreign Minister Asta | Photo by Morris Simon, The Simon Firm for the Emb

On Sept. 15, The Embassy Series opened its new season with a series of moving tributes in conjunction with the Lithuanian government’s declaration of 2011 as The Year of Remembrance for Victims of the Holocaust, with performances in Washington, New York City and Vilnius, Lithuania. The evening featured acclaimed baritone Jerome Barry with award-winners pianist Edvinas Minkstimas and violinist Peter Sirotin. “It is truly amazing that despite the great calamity befalling the Jewish people in Vilnius, they still did lead an inspired life replete with theater and musical presentations,” Barry said, who founded the Embassy Series in 1994 as a way to promote cultural exchange through “musical diplomacy.”