SATURDAY
September 20, AT 7:00PM
Maryland Theatre
Baruch's Silence
Muffled Voices Festival
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Welcome to the second season opening of the Muffled Voices Festival, a celebration of women composers through powerful chamber opera productions that spotlight stories of courage, memory, and resilience.
The evening features the U.S. premiere of one-act chamber opera "Baruch’s Silence" by Ella Milch-Sheriff — a deeply moving work based on a Holocaust survivor’s diary, exploring trauma, silence, and the journey toward forgiveness through hauntingly beautiful music and dramatic intensity.
Staged by renowned opera director Elizaveta Korneeva and performed by acclaimed international artists and orchestra, the festival invites audiences to discover powerful, underrepresented stories in a truly unforgettable experience. Join us for the launch of our second season — and help amplify voices too long unheard.
Program duration:
110 minutes without intermission
Program
Baruchs Schweigen (Baruch's Silence) 2010
One-act chamber opera for 8 soloists and chamber orchestra with libretto by Yael Ronen
This chamber opera delves into the haunting and deeply personal story of Baruch Milch, exploring the enduring trauma of the Holocaust and its intergenerational impact. Through a non-linear narrative, the opera unveils Baruch’s past, his survival, and the profound silence that affects his relationship with his daughter. The story oscillates between memory and reality, portraying the horrors of war, the loss of his first family, and the burden of unspoken history. The opera culminates in an emotional resolution as Baruch’s daughter confronts the silence and seeks understanding.
Composer
Ella Milch-Sheriff is one of Israel’s most prominent and internationally performed contemporary composers. Her works span opera, orchestral, vocal, and chamber music, often exploring personal and historical narratives such as Holocaust memory, identity, and social conflict. She has collaborated with leading orchestras and ensembles around the world, including the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and numerous international opera houses.
Milch-Sheriff’s music is marked by emotional intensity and theatrical expression, blending classical tradition with modern language. Her compositions have been featured in major festivals and received prestigious awards, including the ACUM Prize for Lifetime Achievement and the Rosenblum Prize for the Performing Arts. Her operas, such as Baruchs Schweigen, The Banality of Love, and And the Rat Laughed, have earned acclaim for their artistic power and social relevance.
She is published by Edition Peters and the Israel Music Institute, and continues to be a vital voice in shaping Israeli and international contemporary music.
Creators
Yulia Petrachuk
Soprano
Russian-American soprano Yulia Petrachuk studied at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and is a graduate of Bern Opera Studio in Bern, Switzerland.
Her debut as a professional opera singer was with the State Theater Bern, Switzerland, in 2010. After that, she performed with many other recognized opera companies and concert venues such as Theater Biel (Switzerland), Ash Lawn Opera Festival (US), Opera Ischia (Italy), Dicapo Opera Theater in New York (US), Great Moscow Hall (Russia), Vocal Productions NYC (US), Nova and Opera Camerata in Washington, D.C. (US), Smetana Hall in Prague (Czech Republic), Carnegie Hall in New York (US), Musikverein and Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna (Austria), and many others. Yulia specializes in contemporary opera and other forms of vocal music of the 20th and 21st centuries. She has performed many World and US premieres.
Out of her passion and drive to sustain and give lesser-known and unknown music a voice, Yulia Petrachuk founded Lyrica Classic Entertainment as a sounding beacon to deliver superior-level presentation of music. Yulia has robust experience in international performing arts projects, execution, and collaborations in the US and EU.
Executive producer
Yulia Petrachuk
Daiana Hofmann
Conductor
Born in St. Petersburg, Daiana Hofmann graduated with honors from the Music College at the St. Petersburg Conservatory (class of Distinguished Artist of Russia, Prof. Boris Abalyan). From 2011 to 2013, she studied choral conducting at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory under Prof. Boris Tevlin. In 2015, she earned her bachelor’s degree in symphonic conducting from the Academy of Music in Belgrade, Serbia, where she studied with Prof. Bojan Suđić on a state scholarship awarded in 2013. She is currently advancing her studies in opera and symphonic conducting at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory under Assoc. Prof. Stanislav Dyachenko.
Daiana has participated in master classes with notable musicians, including Vladimir Ponkin, Dmitry Bashkirov, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Vladimir Jurowski, Ronald Zollman, Josef Doller, and Slawek Wrublewski. She has conducted the Belgrade Radio and Television Orchestra, the Belgrade Academy Student Symphony, the Moscow Conservatory Concert Symphony Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Conservatory Opera Theater. In addition to conducting, she actively performs as a pianist and singer, having won the international piano competition in Niš, Serbia.
Daiana is also the founder, artistic director, and conductor of the Moscow Youth Chamber Orchestra, with which she performs at renowned venues in Moscow, including the Great Hall and Rachmaninoff Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.
Conductor
Daiana Hofmann
Elizavrta Korneeva
Stage director
Elizaveta collaborates with the Krasnoyarsk State Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, the independent Moscow-based company Montecchi vs Opera, the Moscow International House of Music, the Helikon-Opera Theatre, the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre (within the framework of a festival), the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia (within the framework of a festival), the State Opera of Hanover (Germany), and the Grand Théâtre de Genève (Switzerland). She is also a recurring collaborator with Lyrica Classic, an international organization dedicated to the promotion of contemporary classical music.
She was a nominee for the Golden Mask National Theatre Award in 2022, as well as for the Onegin Opera Award, and is the winner of three nationwide competitions for young directors organized by the Russian Cultural Foundation. She won the 4th International Competition for Young Opera Directors Nano-Opera, held by Dmitry Bertman, and participated in the Creative Laboratory for Young Directors under the leadership of Alexander Petrov.
In 2021, Elizaveta collaborated with the State Opera of Hanover (Germany) and the Grand Théâtre de Genève (Switzerland).
She regularly works with the independent theatre company Montecchi vs Opera and serves as stage director of the Russian Opera Festival in Taltsy (Irkutsk).
Currently, she is working on new productions at the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theatre, Helikon-Opera, and the Mariinsky Theatre.
Stage director
Elizaveta Korneeva