Degenerate Art
flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello, bass, piano
Degenerate Art -- Throughout history, art has maintained the power to threaten the social order. Delving into music that was censored, banned, and propagandized as “degenerate,” 5HE sheds new light on works by artists facing oppression under oppressive regimes including Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the dark days of McCarthyism herein the USA. Fifth House Ensemble collaborates with the American Civil Liberties Union, Holocaust Community Services, Spertus Institute, Artists at Risk, Unsilence, the Guild Literary Complex, the University of Chicago, and street art collective CMK to share and illuminate poignant historical and present day stories of artists from around the world. New interviews and documentary-style tales from history interact with graffiti painting set to music written in concentration camps and in defiance of powerful regimes.