
2023 Yom Hashoah Commemoration
Voices Silenced: Music from the Holocaust
Monday, April 17 | 6 p.m.
Opening reception with light refreshments: 5:30 p.m.
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A lecture-recital featuring music by three composers who were killed in the Holocaust
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A testimony by Holocaust survivor and author Dirk Van Leenen
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A candle-lighting ceremony with representatives from the City of Chandler and local faith leaders
The program will be held at the East Valley JCC. Registration is required.
Voices Silenced: Music from the Holocaust
The evening will include a lecture-recital featuring music by Viktor Ullmann, Leo Smit and Laszlo Weiner, three composers who were killed in the Holocaust.
Through the presentation and performance of these works, we strive to keep alive the stories, art and legacy of those killed in the Holocaust.
Featured musicians

Hannah Creviston, piano
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Described as “impressive and expressive” (Fanfare Magazine) and “superb…[with] great dexterity, rhythm, and touch” (American Record Guide), Hannah Creviston is Clinical Associate Professor of Piano Pedagogy, Director of the Music Prep Program, Keyboard Area Coordinator and Coordinator of Class Piano at Arizona State University. She received her B.Mus. in Piano Performance and Music Education with a Piano Pedagogy concentration from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, studying with Eugenia Tsarov. A researcher and presenter on the effects of music on children with autism, she holds an M.M. in Piano Performance and an M.MuED in Early Childhood/Elementary Music Education from the University of South Carolina where she studied piano with Dr. Scott Price and music education with Dr. Wendy Valerio. Prior to joining the faculty at ASU in Fall 2012, Creviston was on the faculty at the Crane School of Music.
An avid performer of contemporary music, Creviston has premiered numerous compositions, including works by Whitney Ashe, Cameron Britt, David Heinick, Katherine Hoover, Carter Pann, John Fitz Rogers, Timothy Sullivan, Brian Vlasak, Gregory Wanamaker and Mark Lanz Weiser. Most notably, in 2007, she premiered Stacy Garrop’s Pieces of Sanity at Carnegie Hall with saxophonist Christopher Creviston.
As a collaborative pianist, she regularly performs in festivals and competitions throughout the United States and abroad, including the World Saxophone Congress, International Viola Congress, Music Teachers National Association Solo Competition, North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA) Biennial Conferences, NASA Solo Competition, Navy Band Saxophone Symposium, Great Plains Saxophone Workshop, Potsdam Single Reed Summit, Penn State Single Reed Summit, Crane Saxophone Chamber Music Festival, Cortona Saxophone Sessions and the Southeastern Piano Festival. She has collaborated with various artists, including Terry Barber, Elizabeth Buck, Joe Burgstaller, Christopher Creviston, Geoffrey Deibel, Anthony Kniffen, Joe Lulloff, Jeffrey Loeffert, Timothy McAllister, Jonathan Nichol, Stephen Page, David Pittman-Jennings, David Stambler, Peter Steiner, Deanna Swoboda, James Umble, Robert Young and members of the United States Military Bands.
Frequent workshop topics include Music Learning Theory, teaching music to children with special needs, the importance of movement in teaching rhythm and music by composers killed in the Holocaust. She has presented at numerous conferences, including the World Piano Conference, Music Teachers National Association Conferences, Texas Music Teachers Association Conference and the Arizona State Music Teachers Association Conferences, to name a few. Her articles and compositions appear in Piano Pedagogy Forum, Clavier Companion, Music Play II, ECMMA’s Perspectives and others.
She performs regularly in a duo with her husband, saxophonist Christopher Creviston. Together, they have recorded Phoenix Rising on the Blue Griffin label, Snell Sessions and Columbia Sessions, both on the Albany Records label, and Sunday Afternoon and Breaking, available through CD Baby. Their recordings have been described as “engrossing” (Fanfare Magazine), “highly imaginative and expressive” (composer Denis Bédard), “a good blend of the standard and the new” (American Record Guide), and “sensitive, transparent, powerful music making that causes one to hold their breath often” (Donald Sinta).

Nancy Buck, viola
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Since 2002, Nancy Buck has served on the faculty at Arizona State University. Buck teaches courses in applied viola, chamber music, viola pedagogy and repertoire. Additionally, Buck coordinates the string chamber music program. Buck holds degrees in performance from the Oberlin Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music. While at the Cleveland Institute of Music, she served as teaching assistant to renowned pedagogue Heidi Castleman. Prior to her appointment at ASU, Buck was on the faculty at Bowling Green State University, where she also served as assistant chair of the Department of Music Performance Studies.
Much in demand as a chamber musician and artistic collaborator, Buck has presented recitals in leading concert venues throughout the United States and Europe. She regularly appears with the Arizona Bach Festival and the Phoenix Symphony. She has also been a member of the AZ Musicfest All-Star Orchestra, the Bowling Green String Quartet, the Canton Symphony, the Phoenix Piano Quartet, the Toledo Symphony and the Michigan Opera Theater Orchestra. During the summers, Buck teaches and performs at music festivals around the world, including the Ameropa Festival in Prague, the Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory and the Round Top International Music Festival.
Consistently acclaimed by colleagues and peers as an extraordinarily insightful studio teacher and chamber music coach, Buck is regularly invited to present master classes throughout the country. In 2008, Buck served as chair and artistic director of the 36th International Viola Congress, hosted by ASU, coordinating a vast array of concert events and presentations by leading performers and pedagogues in the field.
Education
Buck holds degrees in performance from the Oberlin Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Sabrina Hu, flute
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Dr. Sabrina Hu enjoys a versatile career as a performer, educator, and director. She has performed in many prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York City, the National Concert Hall in Ireland, and recitals throughout major halls in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Sabrina’s performances have been broadcast live on BBC, RTE and RTHK television and radio, and they have been described as “warm, sensitively balanced and flexible” with “emotional engagement…expressive depth” by the Irish Times. An avid chamber musician, Sabrina is a founding member of Trio Festivale and has toured internationally and commissioned many new works for flute, cello and piano. She is a member of the Phoenix based Woodwind Quintet, Mill Avenue Chamber Players. Sabrina has performed as concerto soloist with the Ulster Orchestra, and as a guest in many orchestras, including the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the Wexford Opera Orchestra, the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and the Phoenix Symphony.
Sabrina currently teaches flute at Phoenix College in Arizona. Previous teaching positions have included Rhodes College in Memphis TN, Lycoming College in PA, and the National University of Ireland. Providing music education to underserved communities is one of Sabrina’s greatest passions and she has worked in many realms to improve access to music lessons for all communities. Sabrina has served as the Director of Operations and Educational Programing for the Prizm Ensemble in Memphis, TN and she currently teaches for the Harmony Project in Phoenix, AZ.
In addition to performing and teaching, Sabrina is also founding Co-Artistic Director of an exciting chamber music festival in Europe, The Walled City Music Festival in Derry, Northern Ireland. Since its inception in 2008, the festival has become one of the most successful arts organizations and festivals in the U.K/Europe.
Originally from Houston, Texas, Sabrina’s early studies were at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston. She then studied at Mannes College of Music in New York City, Royal Northern College of Music in England, and received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Michigan State University.
Dirk Van Leenen
Holocaust survivor Dirk Van Leenen will speak about his experience in Holland during the Holocaust, including how his father, Cornelius, is credited with saving thousands of Jews as he showed resistance on a bicycle.
He is the author of “Resistance on a Bicycle,” “The Americans are Coming” and “The Last Train to the Concentration Camp.” His books will be available for sale and signing after his presentation.

Past Yom Hashoah commemorations
April 27, 2022

Candlelighting ceremony

Rabbi Michael Beyo, East Valley JCC CEO, and Holocaust survivor Bodo Schrader.

Karen Perna and Barbara Burman, coordinators of the East Valley JCC’s Generations After group.

Chandler Police Chief Sean Duggan

Rich Kasper, president and CEO of the Jewish Community Foundation and the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix

Niki Tapia of the City of Chandler

Robin Finlinson of JustServe and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chandler
Event photography courtesy of

Exhibit: “Lost Voices: Greek Jews and the Holocaust”


“Branded Degenerate: Voices Silenced”

Pianist Hannah Creviston, soprano Amanda DeMaris and saxophonist Christopher Creviston presented a lecture-recital highlighting work by those killed in the Holocaust.

Sammi Morris led the group in “Hatikvah” during the ceremony.
May 2019


Holocaust survivor Marion Weinzweig, author “Lonely Chameleon,” pictured with her daughter Cindy Katz.

“Through the Eyes of Youth: Life and Death in the Bedzin Ghetto,” an exhibit created by the Martin-Springer Institute at NAU, was on display.

Presenters included Chandler Vice Mayor Terry Roe, right.

The evening Yom Hashoah Commemoration ceremony included a candlelighting ceremony. Pictured is Chandler Police Chief Sean Duggan.

Gerald Lamb and Melissa Cohen, representatives of the Martin-Springer Institute at NAU, presented a morning lecture and an afternoon educators’ workshop. There was also a screening of documentary “Shalom Italia.”