Syracuse University Oratorio Society

05/02/2026

03/08/2026

We’re excited to host Dr. Greenbacker-Mitchell on March 16!

Amanda Greenbacker-Mitchell ’17, G’22 returns to campus to present "Learning Disguised as Play: Children's Music Education in the Terezín Ghetto During the Holocaust." Her research examines how vital it was to create educational activities under perilous conditions, and she offers valuable insights for scholars and practitioners in music education, general education, and Holocaust history. Free and open to the public!

Monday, March 16, 11 a.m.
114 Bird Library (Peter Graham Room)

More details at the link the comments. This event is part of a series of of residency events in support of the The Syracuse Orchestra and Syracuse University Oratorio Society's performance of Defiant Requiem in April.

02/01/2026

We are thrilled to welcome back Syracuse University alum Dr. Amanda Greenbacker Mitchell!

During her time at Syracuse, Dr. Greenbacker-Mitchell was awarded the Chancellor's Citation for Excellence in Student Research for her interdisciplinary music performance curriculum written on behalf of the The Defiant Requiem Foundation (Washington, DC), as well as the Setnor School of Music Graduate Academic Award.

Although researchers have detailed the musical activities of adults in Terezín, there is little scholarship about the musical experiences of children in the ghetto—until now. Join us as Dr. Mitchell examines how children engaged with music while imprisoned in Terezín during the Holocaust between 1941 and 1945.

This presentation is part of our residency events series supporting The Syracuse Orchestra and Syracuse University Oratorio Society's upcoming performance of Defiant Requiem
on April 16.

📍 Event details and registration: https://events.syracuse.edu/event/learning-disguised-as-play

With Amanda Greenbacker-Mitchell ’17, G’22 While the musical activities of adults in Terezín have been well-documented, the musical experiences of children in the ghetto remain largely unexplored. This talk bridges that critical gap in our understanding of life in Theresienstadt. Drawing from h...

01/28/2026

On this International Holocaust Remembrance Day, learn more about The Defiant Requiem that we will present with The Syracuse Orchestra on April 16.

The signature concert of The Defiant Requiem Foundation, Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín, tells the story of the courageous Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp (Terezín) during World War II who performed Verdi’s Requiem while experiencing the depths of human degradation. With only a single smuggled score, they performed the celebrated oratorio sixteen times, including one performance before senior SS officials from Berlin and an International Red Cross delegation. Conductor Rafael Schächter told the choir, “We will sing to the N***s what we cannot say to them.”

Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín is a concert-drama that was conceived and created by Foundation President, Maestro Murry Sidlin. It combines the magnificent music of Verdi with video testimony from survivors of the original Terezín chorus and footage from the 1944 N**i propaganda film about Theresienstadt. The performance also includes actors who speak the words of imprisoned conductor Rafael Schächter and others.

Defiant Requiem is not just a performance of the Verdi Requiem, but a tribute to the inspired leadership of Rafael Schächter who was forced to reconstitute the choir three times as members were transported to Auschwitz. The performances came to symbolize resistance and defiance and demonstrated the prisoners’ courage to confront the worst of mankind with the best of mankind. Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín is powerful, dramatic and inspirational. By the end of the 2016-17 season, it will have been presented worldwide more than 40 times since the Portland, Oregon, premiere in 2002.

01/20/2026

Are you interested in auditioning to sing the Verdi Requiem with The Syracuse Orchestra on April 16? Contact us ASAP to schedule an audition. Rehearsals start on Monday, January 26!

01/08/2026

Rehearsals for Verdi’s Requiem start soon! If you are interested in auditioning to sing with us, contact us at [email protected]

During WWII in Terezin Concentration Camp, conductor and prisoner Rafael Schachter taught 150 prisoners the Verdi Requiem note by note after grueling days of forced labor. In an act of utmost defiance, this group persevered to keep art alive and performed the Requiem 16 times for their fellow prison...

12/14/2025

We are still glowing after last week's performance!

Bravi tutti!
Messiah with The Syracuse Orchestra and Syracuse University Oratorio Society

12/06/2025

Tonight's performance of Handel's Messiah will be conducted by our very own director, Dr. Wendy Moy. She directs the Oratorio Society and serves as Chair of Music Education and Associate Professor at Syracuse University. She is also the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Chorosynthesis Singers, recipients of the 2024 American Prize in Choral Performance—Professional Division. Their album, Empowering Silenced Voices, released on Centaur Records, features new music centered on socially conscious themes and has been praised for its artistic depth and advocacy.

Dr. Moy has served as Conductor of the Bellevue Chamber Chorus and Director of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus, where she appeared with the Symphony to conduct Charles Frink’s John Henry and Handel’s Messiah. Equally at home in the orchestral world, she began playing the violin at age four and later studied orchestral conducting with Eric Hanson and Kenneth Kiesler. She went on to coach and conduct with the Cascade Youth Symphony.

A sought-after guest conductor, she recently headlined the Festival Paraibano de Coros in João Pessoa, Brazil, and served as orchestral conductor at the Festival Internacional de Música de Campina Grande in Brazil. She has also conducted the Massachusetts and Rhode Island All-State Choirs.

Her honors include the 2024 Paul and Veronica Abel Award for Choral Performance (Civic Morning Musicals) and 3rd Place in the American Prize in Choral Conducting—Professional Division. Dr. Moy holds a Master of Music Education from Westminster Choir College and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from the University of Washington. For more information, visit www.wendymoy.com.