NEW YORK.- Sixty-five years after the massacre in Kiev, Yevgeny Yevtushenko read his famous poem, Babi Yar, to commemorate the event at Babi Yar Remembered: Yevtushenko and Shostakovich in Word and Song at the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust on Wednesday, September 27 at 7 p.m. Following the reading the world premiere of the two-piano version of the first movement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13, based on Yevtushenko’s powerful poem. The work was performed by internationally acclaimed pianists Misha and Cipa Dichter, bass soloist Valentin Peytchinov, and a male chorus led by Patrick Gardner, made up of the Riverside Choral Society, Rutgers University Kirkpatrick Choir, and Rutgers University Glee Club.

On September 29 and 30, 1941, more than thirty thousand Jews, along with Soviet prisoners of war, gypsies, underground fighters, and others from Kiev and the surrounding area were killed by the Nazis at a ravine called Babi Yar. This mass murder has become a symbol of blind hatred and has become immortalized through the poetry of Mr. Yevtushenko and the music of Dmitri Shostakovich.

The two-piano version of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 was written by the composer himself and has never been performed or published before. Irina Antonovna, the widow of Shostakovich, has given special permission to the Museum for this performance in Edmond J. Safra Hall.

Ivy Barsky, the Museum’s deputy director for programs, says, “This program is a powerful confluence of expressions—Yevtushenko’s recitation of his stirring poem, the world premiere of Shostakovich’s piece (composed in response to Yevtushenko’s verse), performed by a pair of virtuosic New York pianists—one of whom is the child of Holocaust survivors—presented at New York’s most important cultural institution dedicated to Jewish history and Holocaust memory. It promises to be a meaningful commemoration, a glorious artistic happening, and a memorable shared experience at the Museum. We are proud to present it.”

Yevgeny Yevtushenko was born in Russia in 1933. His poetry was controversial for its criticism of Russia’s post-Stalinist government. He wrote his most famous poem, Babi Yar, in 1961. It was not published in the Soviet press until 1984. Since the 1970s he has been active in many fields of culture: writing novels, acting, film directing, and photography. He is still politically active, promoting the works of former dissident poets, environmental causes, and the memory of victims of the Soviet Gulags. He currently teaches Russian and European poetry and film at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma.

World-renowned husband and wife pianists Misha and Cipa Dichter, who The New York Times praises for their “synchronism of their musical impulses…vigor and elegance of the execution,” appeared together for the first time at the Hollywood Bowl in 1972, four years after their wedding. In the more than three decades since that concert, they have performed in recitals around the country and with symphony orchestras in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Cincinnati. They perform regularly at many leading summer festivals including Aspen, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, and Caramoor. Abroad they have performed in France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Switzerland, and Zurich.

Bass Valentin Peytchinov has appeared throughout his native Bulgaria and on the opera, concert, and recital stages of Germany, Austria, Italy, Mexico, Canada, Ireland, and Poland. Since immigrating to the U.S. he has performed on numerous opera stages in North America, as well as in recital and in concert, and was featured in two all-Shostakovich concerts as part of an International Music Festival broadcast on National Public Radio. In New York, where he makes his home, Mr. Peytchinov has appeared in concert at Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall and with the Juilliard Opera Center and New York City Opera. He joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in 2000.

Conductor Patrick Gardner is an active concert and opera conductor in New York City, where since 1990 he has directed the Riverside Choral Society, which performs frequently at Lincoln Center, including the Mostly Mozart Festival, and other New York venues. An active new-music advocate,

Mr. Gardner has premiered works by such composers as William Bolcom, John Harbison, Lou Harrison, and Lukas Foss. Mr. Gardner is also director of choral activities at Rutgers University, where he conducts the Kirkpatrick Choir and Glee Club. The Kirkpatrick Choir conducted by Mr. Gardner can be heard performing Five Sephardic Choruses on an all-Samuel Adler recording released in 2004 as part of the 50-CD Milken Archive of American Jewish Music.

Dmitri Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg in 1906. Shostakovich’s music, although popular with audiences, was frowned upon by government officials who favored “socialist realism.” He died in Moscow in 1975 and was given a state burial, finally recognized as the most important Russian composer of his generation.

In addition to the first movement of Symphony No. 13, the musical component of the program will consist of Shostakovich’s Concertino for two pianos, played by Misha and Cipa Dichter, and songs with texts by Yevtushenko, which were sung by Valentin Peytchinov accompanied by Misha Dichter. The literary component also feature Yevgeny Yevtushenko reading some of his other poems, including The Loss.

The program took place in the Museum’s own Edmond J. Safra Hall, a 375-seat state-of-the-art performance venue that hosts concerts as well as films and discussions. It is also home to the only Fazioli piano in a New York performance hall. This program is made possible through the generous support of Mrs. Avery Fisher.