"Voices of Silicon Valley (VOSV) will present our 3rd Virtual Concert broadcast for free on May 24th at 5 pm PST. The actions that we take can echo throughout the annals of time, sometimes at great personal risk. VOSV is proud to present several works of great historical and social significance: ""Butterfly,"" ""Moms of Silicon Valley"" and ""MLK.""
First, our audiences will hear the story of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who during World War 2 was stationed in Kaunas, Lithuania, and saved thousands of Polish Jews fleeing Nazi prosecution by providing them with visas to Japan at the dismay of the Japanese government, having not gone through proper channels for issuing visas. He hand-wrote these visas, reportedly spending 18-20 hours a day on them. This story will be delivered by VOSV and our soloist Sergey Khalikulov as ""Butterfly,"" a new piece by I'lana Cotton. In 1985, Sugihara was honored at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem, with Israel granting him the title as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.
VOSV will also present ""Moms of Silicon Valley"" by composer Monica Houghton, a piece that we commissioned in 2015. The piece describes the struggles of undocumented Hispanic families in California. The text was written by students in the Bay Area, who attended ESL classes, some of whom were undocumented mothers. Their faces will be presented in the pictures that will accompany the concert, some of whom are covered for fear of deportation. We can see some of the parallels exhibited in history that reverberate in our present day.
Finally, we will show our recording of ""MLK,"" an original song by U2 dedicated to the great civil rights leader, in the arrangement made for King's Singers. At the age of 35, King was the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace PPrize. And King's message of freedom and equality continue to influence America to this very day, shaping our perception of social justice, and giving voice to the voiceless.
As always, you can see our broadcast on
VOSV's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu6cNkIfKetqFXf0hE35Mtw
VOSV's Facebook group page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/voices.sv/
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