Livermore, CA -- Livermore Valley Arts is honored to be able to present at the Bankhead Theater a number of upcoming performances and exhibitions that not only discuss events relevant to Americans today, but also explore and expand upon the idea of what it means to be American. On Saturday, August 27, San Francisco-based Nava Dance Theatre and Rupy C. Tut will present Broken Seeds Still Grow, a moving, multi-disciplinary dance and visual art production exploring the continuing impact of the 1947 British India Partition. A few months later in February of the new year, Violins of Hope will be making a rare appearance in the United States right here in the Tri-Valley, with both an exhibition as well as three music performances where the instruments will be played, right at the Bankhead. This powerful performance and exhibition is a collection of Holocaust related string instruments housed in Tel Aviv, Israel that serves to educate and memorialize the lives of prisoners in concentration camps through concerts, exhibitions, and other projects. "The East Bay Holocaust Education Center (EBHEC) is honored to bring the Violins of Hope to the East Bay" states Larry Lagin, EBHEC President and Livermore resident. "EBHEC's mission is serve as a comprehensive resource center to the educate people of all faiths in the San Francisco East Bay about the Holocaust and to honor its victims. Since being formed as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, EBHEC has presented over 15 Holocaust education programs to the East Bay communities, many of them free to the public. We hope everyone will take advantage of this amazing educational opportunity to hear the music of the Violins and their stories come to life again." Tickets for Broken Seeds Still Grow are on sale now, while tickets for Violins of Hope go on sale on July 1. The public is invited to treasure and learn from these histories at both of these events, performing at the Bankhead Theater in Downtown Livermore.

Nadhi Thekkek and Rupy C. Tut created Broken Seeds Still Grow, a multi-disciplinary dance and visual art production exploring the continuing impact of the 1947 British India Partition. Through bharatanatyam dance and mixed visual media, the performance examines the hyphenated-American, immigrant experience, linking it to the displacement of their ancestors during Partition. This creative inquiry sources poetry, eyewitness accounts, and current events to understand the current political climate while reflecting on what it means to belong somewhere. Partition was one of the most formative events in South Asia's recent history, creating over 15 million refugees and leaving over one million people dead. Nadhi and Rupy have sourced eyewitness accounts from Partition collected by their collaborating organization, the 1947 Partition Archive (Berkeley, CA), and researched the current South Asian immigrant experience to understand how the feeling of displacement continues to shape identities today. Nadhi and Rupy use bharatanatyam, calligraphy, Indian miniature painting, and spoken word to tie these contemporary narratives to their personal experiences as Americans of South Asian descent. Broken Seeds Still Grow will also have an art exhibition portion accompanying the performance the week of the show at the Bankhead, with co-creator and visual artist Rupy Tut's multilingual calligraphy and Indian (Pahari) miniature painting showcasing and sharing their relevance of heritage, art, history, and art practice. This real life history of so many Americans, told through this powerful performance, is important for us all, as we consider what we carry with us and what does it mean to be American, in all of its rich and multi-faceted forms.

Violins of Hope is a series of concerts based on a private collection of Violins, violas, and cellos all collected since the end of World War 2. All of these instruments belonged to Jews before and during the war - many were donated by or bought from survivors. All of these instruments have a common denominator: they had to do with the war. To be more specific, they had to do with the Holocaust - death or survival, and hope. All instruments were symbols of hope and a way to say: remember me, remember us. Life is good, celebrate it for those who perished, for those who survived. For all people.

Father and son violin-makers Amnon and Avshalom Weinstein, who work in Tel Aviv and Istanbul, own this collection. They dedicate their expertise and endless love to preserving and caring for these instruments. The Nazis used music and especially violins to humiliate and degrade Jews in ghettos and camps. These concerts are the ultimate answer to their plan to annihilate a people and their culture, to destroy human lives and freedom. The sound of violins is often compared to the beauty of the human voice, it is known to reach out and touch hearts. This was the role of violins in the war – to touch hearts, kindle hope for better times, and spread it around. Wherever there was music, there was hope.

In recent years some of the best world celebrated orchestras hosted Violins of Hope concerts, such as the Berlin Philharmonic and the Cleveland Symphony. Violins of Hope will be on display with a free multimedia exhibition of the instruments open to the public at the UNCLE Credit Union Art Gallery in the Bankhead Theater from January 31 through February 12, 2023. Besides offering this exhibition of 20-to-30 instruments and their individual stories for students and adults alike to see and learn, Violins of Hope will also be holding three special performances at the Bankhead from February 5 to 7, 2023, which will both honor a memory of the millions of Jews murdered in WW2, but also present the victory of the human spirit over evil and hatred. The music of the violins will come alive again with performances by the Livermore-Amador Symphony, conducted by Lara Webber, with special performances by violinist Lindsay Deutsch and cellist Peter Bedrossian. Avshi Weinstein, co-founder of Violins of Hope, will also provide stories of several of the instruments. These special concerts bring together people of all faiths and backgrounds, and Violins of Hope's exhibit is accompanied by an extensive educational program, telling the history of some of these special instruments – such as the violin that was thrown out of a cattle train on way from France to Auschwitz; the violin that was buried under the snow in Holland; or the violin that saved lives of people who played in a camp orchestra and survived. Additionally the Violins of Hope will tour, through a series of concerts, all the middle and high schools here in the Tri-Valley, offering the students a chance to see and hear the instruments and their stories.These restored instruments played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust have survived pogroms, ghettos, concentration camps, and long journeys, and represent remarkable stories of injustice, suffering, resilience, and survival, and will be right here in the Tri-Valley. See www.ebhec.org/violins for more information about the Violins the Hope East Bay tour.

The UNCLE Credit Union Art Gallery and the Bankhead Theater are located at 2400 First Street in Livermore. These performances and exhibitions are part of LVA's core value and belief that everyone in the Tri-Valley should have the opportunity to experience a variety of arts, that reflect our wonderfully diverse community here in our beautiful Tri-Valley. The public is invited to share in these events, to not only grow from darker parts of our human history, but also celebrate and honor some of the rich and beautiful cultures that are part of our shared humanity as Americans.

Event: Broken Seeds Still Grow
Date/Time: Saturday, August 27, 2022 at 3pm
Tickets: $10-$60 ($20 student/military personnel/seniors)

Exhibit: Violins of Hope (Exhibit)
Dates/Times: Thursdays-Sundays, 1pm-5pm, January 31 - February 12, 2023
Tickets: Free

Event: Violins of Hope (Performances)
Dates/Times:
Sunday, February 5, 2023 at 3pm, and
Monday, February 6 & Tuesday, February 7, 2023 at 7:30pm
Tickets: $35-$500 (includes donation)

Dates, times, and ticket prices for other events available at www.LivermoreArts.org.