Holocaust Remembrance Day event

In honor of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the liberation of the concentration camps, The Phoenix Symphony is collaborating with the Phoenix Holocaust Association on a powerful Holocaust Remembrance Day event. It is free and open to the public and takes place on April 27, 2025, at Symphony Hall in downtown Phoenix.

Peter Kjome, Phoenix Symphony CEO, and Sheryl Bronkesh, Phoenix Holocaust Association past president, joined “Arizona Horizon” to talk about this event and its details.

The collaboration is part of an event to honor Holocaust survivors with a special ceremony. Holocaust survivors will sit on stage at Symphony Hall. The music will include a work by Gideon Klein, composed just days before his transport from Terezín to Auschwitz.

“It has been 80 years, and we are losing our Holocaust survivors more frequently now,” Bronkesh said. “They’re all in their 90s, and I felt it was very important to have the general community have the opportunity to see Holocaust survivors and participate in this annual commemoration.”

There will be about 20 Holocaust survivors in attendance, along with a candlelight service and an indication by a local rabbi. Governor Katie Hobbs, Mayor Kate Gallego and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes are a few Arizona figures that will be in attendance as well.

“Earlier that day, we will be performing a concert, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Phonic Metamorphosis, during the commemoration itself, which will be at 5 o’clock that Sunday. We’re going to be playing a work by Gideon Klein, and this piece has deep meaning and resonance with the day,” Kjome said.

Bronkesh said she wants people to wonder, “Why didn’t more people stand up and be upstanders? How do people allow this to happen?” She also knows the past cannot be changed, however the future can, in terms of genocide events.

The event will take place on Sunday, April 27, 2025, at 5 p.m. at Symphony Hall. The location can be found here. It is a free event, however they require tickets, which you can acquire here.