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During a Spector/Warren Fellowship for Future Educators course in 2017, Amanda Greenbacker-Mitchell learned the most horrifying statistic she’s ever heard. In New York state, students typically only receive 70 minutes of education on the Holocaust while in school. And from her experience as a former public school teacher, this information rings true.

Greenbacker-Mitchell is a graduate student working toward her master’s degree at the Setnor School of Music. She graduated from Syracuse University in 2017 and uses music to connect with other cultures and educate people about the Holocaust.

Before returning to SU to pursue her master’s degree, Greenbacker-Mitchell spent three years teaching instrumental music to students in grades 4-12 in a rural school near Oneonta. As much as she loved working with younger students, the research she’s doing now is best fit for the collegiate level, she said.

Greenbacker-Mitchell’s research focuses on “how to teach about the Holocaust, or in more broad terms, human atrocity and genocide, through music and music performance,” and aligns well with what she learns as a Spector/Warren Fellow.

Growing up with a Jewish history teacher as a father, she learned to love and appreciate history and the stories of humans. As she got older, she realized that music was what she wanted to do in life. Now, both passions intertwine with her career.

“I fell into teaching about the Holocaust through music, because I know, as a musician, how deeply moving even a piece of music that’s not written about anything, just the sheer sound of it can move people to tears,” Greenbacker-Mitchell said.

But what ultimately changed her career and her whole life was watching the documentary “Defiant Requiem” for the first time.

The film tells the story of Rafael Schächter, a Czech conductor who aimed to sustain courage and hope among fellow prisoners through music in the Terezín concentration camp. The documentary explores how Schächter’s choir members view the “Verdi’s Requiem” as an act of defiance and resistance against the Nazis.

The Defiant Requiem Foundation invests in Holocaust education and offers free online educational content and teacher workshops that accompany the film. Greenbacker-Mitchell was one of those participating teachers, which is how she met Maestro Murry Sidlin, a conductor, educator and artistic innovator, and founder and president of the Defiant Requiem Foundation.

Sidlin offers Greenbacker-Mitchell assistance in her research and pursuit of educating people about the story of the Defiant Requiem and how to teach about the Holocaust and genocides in the music classroom.

“Verdi’s Requiem” is a difficult piece of music, one typically performed by professional musicians, Sidlin said. Greenbacker-Mitchell is adapting portions of Verdi’s piece to accommodate the abilities of student musicians.

“She’s very brave to attempt to develop this unique project in a way that will assist young students get a better idea of the power and beauty of this music and how it inspired the prisoners at Terezín,” Sidlin said.

Shannon Kirkpatrick | Presentation Director

Though Greenbacker-Mitchell does put a lot of focus on the Defiant Requiem and the message within the film, she also looks at other pieces of music and other artists like musicians Gideon Kline and Hans Krása, who were kept in concentration camps.

Elisa Dekaney, a professor of music education in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the School of Education, is overseeing Greenbacker-Mitchell’s research project and one of Greenbacker-Mitchell’s biggest influences. Dekaney brings her own knowledge to the table while watching Greenbacker-Mitchell devise her own similar project. Within the lessons that Greenbacker-Mitchell is creating, she sees potential, for musicians, nonmusicians and educators.

“I really don’t think that there will be any transformative change without teachers engaging in tough conversations and the development of the critical analysis of historical documents of what happened, and an understanding of the human condition,” Dekaney said.

To Greenbacker-Mitchell, music is a connecting force between all cultures. She said that in studying music she is learning more about other people in the world. That is one of the reasons that music is so meaningful to her.

In college, she learned about a cognitive learning theory called cognitive constructivism that resonates with her and her research and future goals.

“Essentially, what (cognitive constructivism) says is, without context, there is no meaning. And without meaning, there is no learning,” Greenbacker-Mitchell said. “To create learning, and long-lasting learning, you have to create meaning. And that’s the bridge. Music is the bridge.”

Through studying music, Greenbacker-Mitchell said she is learning about people from all around the world. Emily Steinberger | Photo Editor

Music can connect people from around the world and of different cultures, and can be a means of staying connected to one’s own culture. For people living in the ghettos and concentration camps during the Holocaust and World War II, music was one of the few things people had to hold onto, said Alan Goldberg, professor emeritus in the School of Education at SU.

“It’s very important that we realize that, you know, that there were songs that kept people alive in the ghetto,” he said. “They didn’t want to forget.”

While keeping memories and experiences alive is important and a crucial part of education so is making sure some things never happen again.

Part of Greenbacker-Mitchell’s passion for anti-violence education stems from the sentiment “never again,” which is what people say about the Holocaust and never letting such an atrocity happen again. But, said Greenbacker-Mitchell, it’s still happening –– there are still genocides currently going on in the world. She aims to fulfill that sentiment in her own way.

“So if I can, in my small way, through music performance, and in the students that I have, and the teachers that I’m going to help to lead later on, if I can help stop it at that level, at least that much, I feel like I’m doing my part to say ‘never again,’” Greenbacker-Mitchell said.

Published on April 8, 2021 at 12:55 am

Contact Gavi: gavi@dailyorange.com | @gavi_azoff