Instructional Grants

Shanghai Sonatas

Xiang Gao, Polly Zavadivker,

In the late 1930s, over 23,000 German and Austrian Jews fled from the Nazi regime to the only city in the world that didnt require a visa  Shanghai, China. Among these largely middle and upper-class refugees were about 450 professional musicians, who utilized their art to give voice to the fears, anxieties, struggles and hopes borne of their experience as guests in a completely foreign culture.Nearly eighty years later, the world-renowned musician and UD Trustees Distinguished Professor of Music, Xiang Gao, is creating with his team of world-class artists The Shanghai Sonatas, a new musical based on the memoirs of the Jewish refugees who lived through this unique historical reality.