“Stolpersteine and Holocaust music from the former USSR”
Professional Background
Dr. Alexandra Birch holds both a Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music in Violin Performance degree as a student of Dr. Katherine McLin from Arizona State University (USA). As the Alexander Grass Memorial Fellow at the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Dr. Birch will be conducting research for her upcoming musical project, “Stolpersteine and Holocaust music from the former USSR.”
Dr. Birch has a diverse career as a violinist, violist and scholar. As a soloist and chamber musician, Dr. Birch has toured extensively in over 20 countries with performances in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Bolshoi Theatre and the Mariinski Theater. She is further the recipient of numerous national and international awards, including the 2016 Auschwitz Jewish Center Publication award for the “Musical Commemoration of Genocide.” Other awards include the 2015 Frazer Memorial Award for Judaism in the Arts at Yad Vashem (Israel) and an Auschwitz Jewish Center Fellowship (Poland) in 2016.
Dr. Birch is fluent in English, French, and Russian.
Fellowship Research
Drawing on Museum resources, Dr. Birch Dr. Birch seeks to reincorporate scores from the Holocaust into the standard classical canon and examine Holocaust memory in the Soviet consciousness. She will work with scores from the former USSR and ultimately plans to produce a lecture recital tour and two CD releases with pianists Dani Shraibman and Yeojin Seol.
Dr. Birch will be in residence through December 31, 2018, and can be contacted at her museum email abirch@ushmm.org.